(Bloomberg) -- The death toll from the strongest tropical cyclone ever to hit Fiji climbed to at least 20 as aerial surveillance of affected areas showed entire villages were obliterated as the Category-5 storm roared across the South Pacific nation at the weekend.
A state of natural disaster remains in place across Fiji as officials and aid agencies begin to survey the destruction. In the eastern part of the archipelago, 150 houses have been confirmed as destroyed, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs office, and photos taken by a New Zealand air-force plane posted to Facebook by Fiji’s government showed rows of flattened houses, uprooted trees and felled power lines. Streets in Nadi, the tourism-dependent country’s travel hub, were flooded during the storm, though flights from the airport there resumed Monday.
“Given the intensity of the storm and the images we have seen so far, there are strong concerns that the death toll won’t stop climbing,” Raijeli Nicole, Oxfam’s regional director for the Pacific, said in an e-mailed statement. “Hundreds of people will have seen their homes and livelihoods completely destroyed.”
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