Vanuatu’s president was rushing back to his country in the wake of what he dubbed a “monster” cyclone whose damage was still unknown beyond the devastation in the south Pacific archipelago’s capital city.

Survivors picked through ruined stores today in a desperate search for drinking water and food in a Solomon Islands town devastated by a tsunami, as an international relief effort made tentative first steps.

A powerful earthquake shook Papua New Guinea today, the US Geological Survey said.

The eruption of a Vanuatu volcano eased slightly today, but the plight of thousands of villagers who fled to temporary evacuation centres did not, as they returned to their deserted gardens to forage for food.