Nine Aussies still missing in Fiji

Nine Australians remain unaccounted for in the part of Fiji battered by tropical
Cyclone Tomas, the Australian High Commission says.
An Australian official will be sent to the South Pacific nation to try to contact
the missing Australians, but there was no suggestion any of them had been injured,
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Thursday.
"We continue to have no information available to us which would indicate that any
Australian has been adversely caught up in the circumstances or the aftermath of the
cyclone," he told reporters in Canberra.
A natural disaster was declared in Fiji on Tuesday after gusts of wind peaking at
more than 200km/h and massive storm surges uprooted trees, destroyed homes and
forced the evacuation of 17,000 people.
Fifty Australians were registered with the Australian government as being in the
area at the time of the cyclone, Mr Smith said.
On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand defence force aircraft conducted aerial
surveys over the northern and eastern regions of Fiji which bore the brunt of the
category-four cyclone this week.
Relief co-ordinator for the Fiji Disaster Management Office, Anthony Blake, said the
north coast of Vanua Levu, Fiji's second-largest island, was pounded by storm
surges.
"On the main island of Vanua Levu there's not much extensive damage. However, along
the coast there is damage in terms of coastal inundation," he told AAP.
"That is definitely an issue."
Mr Blake said Tomas had thrashed isolated islands with small populations, but added:
"This does not mean that the damage is minimal".
"At the end of the day, the relief might not be large scale. However, the logistics
is definitely an issue here.
"(The islands) are very widely separated," he said.
He confirmed that at least two schools had been damaged in the north, trees were
uprooted and debris scattered widely around the islands.
Members of the Australian Defence Force, accompanied by AusAID staff, spent four
hours surveying the Lomaiviti and Lau island groups on Thursday.
"They observed variable damage," AusAID's head of aid in Suva, Judith Robinson, told
AAP.
"They did observe damage to crops in the southern Lau Group on a number of islands,
especially tree crops.
"They also saw visible damage to buildings ... roofs off and ... damage to jetties
and wharves on some of the islands."
Ms Robinson said the northern Lau islands appeared to have copped the most damage.
Mr Blake said three navy boats had left Suva - one en route to the northern island
of Cikobia, the other two bound for the Lomaiviti and Lau groups in the eastern
region of Fiji.
On Friday, they will do ground assessments and distribute emergency supplies.
The Australian and New Zealand governments have dedicated up to $1 million in
emergency help to Fiji.