Authorities in Fiji have distributed 10,000 food packs to people affected by Cyclone Yasa, as the aid effort in the country's north gets underway.
The cyclone tore across the northern island of Vanua Levu on Thursday night as a category five, destroying entire villages and leaving thousands homeless.
Photo: AFP/Fiji Red Cross
A journalist on Vanua Levu, Serafina Silaitoga, said government relief teams arrived on Sunday.
"We're expecting about 50 military officers who will be in Vanua Levu to assist the government officials," she said.
About 7,000 people remain in evacuation centres across the country, the government said. The death toll currently stands at four, although local media are carrying reports of several people still missing.
The UN resident coordinator in Fiji, Sanaka Samarasinha, said the cyclone had tore a 100km path of destruction across the island.
Cyclone Yasa struck the Fiji island of Vanua Levu, causing major damage. Photo: Fiji Government
He said a large-scale response would be needed, one that would involve international help.
"These people were already quite vulnerable to begin with," Samarasinha said. "We're talking about poor farmers, informal labourers, their vulnerabilities are totally exposed [by the cyclone]."
"The people who have been affected have been affected very badly," he said.
Members of the Fiji military, as well as government and UN teams were deployed to the north on Sunday.
An Australian plane laden with relief supplies has already landed, and a New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules spent the weekend conducting two assessment flights; one over Vanua Levu, the other over the eastern Lau group of islands.
Devastation wrought by Cyclone Yasa on the island of Vanua Levu, Fiji. Photo: Fiji Government
Air Commodore Shaun Sexton said about 70 staff were involved in the New Zealand response and were on stand by to offer more help.
"On Vanua Levu there was a little more damage, mostly to smaller buildings - houses and so on and so forth," he said.
"The Lau group looked a little better. Overall, we're waiting now for the government of Fiji to make any requests for assistance that they might like," he said.
Samarasinha, from the UN, said a response was already well underway. Drinking water and shelter was being sent out, and most access roads had been cleared.
He said there were some very remote areas - particularly in the Lau group - still to be reached.
Wreckage left in the wake of Cyclone Yasa on the Fiji island of Vanua Levu. Photo: Supplied / Lusi Banuve
Still, even amidst the destruction, some things must go on.
As she travelled around Vanua Levu on Sunday, Serafina Silaitoga found people across the worst-hit Bua region still preparing for church, dressed in whatever they salvaged from ruined homes.
"Everyone was in church in Bua, everywhere in Cakaudrove all those affected areas," she said. "They were back in church, even though their church was down, some roofs missing, broken walls."
