POOL Tikopia island, Solomon Islands Aerials (shots 1-8): 1. Tikopia island, showing fallen trees and damaged buildings 2. White sand washed up coast 3. Coastline damage 4. Pan from sea to island 5. Shot inside chopper flying overhead, pilots in silhouette 6. Tikopia island below amongst clouds 7. North of Anuta island with few trees after cyclone 8. Tracking aerial of island Honiara, Solomon Islands 9. Briefing room, pan to man with map on desk 10. People look at computer screen 11. Screen showing Solomon islands 12. SOUNDBITE (English) Loti Yates, Director of Natural Disaster Management Organisations of the Solomon Islands: "The indication that we see on the vegetation especially, there was a lot of damage to the coconut trees and there were trees which have been uprooted, but the very impressing thing about it is that most of the traditional houses were left intact although you could see trees that might have fallen on top of them etcetera." 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Hermann Oberli, Doctor: "Our job is to do a quick assessment, first of all of the injured. If you have trees and tree tops flying through the air, you expect quite a few people to be injured. The seriously injured people, they will not survive, they will probably already be dead by now, but there might be other injuries that still need interventions. So, that's one priority." 9. Beach with boats and palm trees 10. Street scene 11. Coastline STORYLINE: Residents of two remote Pacific islands devastated by a powerful cyclone have begun rebuilding their homes and resuming business activities, Australian aid officials said Thursday after flying over the area. Packing winds up to 360 kilometres per hour (225 miles per hour ), Cyclone Zoe hit the tiny islands of Tikopia and Anuta on Sunday, wiping out communications and making initial assessment of casualties and damage impossible. An Australian air force C-130 Hercules with officials from the government's aid agency flew over the islets in the remote Temotu province of the Solomon Islands Wednesday to survey the damage. There was no evidence of injuries, but the report was made from an aircraft flying 500 meters (yards) above the islands, he said. The Australian air force plane was making another flight over the two islands Thursday to gather further information to help aid efforts. Aid officials said it was now believed about 3,700 people were on the two islands, which lie about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) east of Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands. An earlier estimate said about 2,000 people inhabited the islands, neither of which have airstrips. It takes days to reach them by boat from Honiara. Australia has given 50,000 Australian dollars (US$28,000) to buy food and radio equipment to go on the emergency boat from Honiara, which has been delayed because the cash-strapped Solomon Islands government could not pay for food and other supplies. New Zealand is pitching in NZ$70,000 (US$36,600) for the aid mission. The Solomon Islands is a chain of 80 equatorial islands 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) northeast of Sydney, Australia. The country's economy is close to collapse following years of fighting between rival islanders that left dozens dead and caused an exodus of foreign investors. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/20197ff3ca6697878f095e66d966f28c Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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