Landslides and a tsunami destroyed the homes of about a third of the population on one of the islands in the Solomons, it emerged today.

LANDSLIDES and a tsunami destroyed the homes of about one-third of the population on a Solomon Island, but lives were likely spared as residents with memories of previous disasters fled quickly to higher ground, officials said yesterday.

At least 15 villages have been washed into the ocean on one of two Pacific islands devastated by a massive cyclone, an anthropologist said today.

One of two tiny South Pacific islands cut off from the world for days by a massive cyclone has been left devastated, a New Zealand cameraman said after flying over it today.

More than 1,300 people on two remote Pacific islands haven't been heard from since a hurricane swept through the region over the weekend.