Fiji Cyclone Death Toll Reaches 20 After Storm Smashes Villages

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.