Sisters tell Anna Leask in Fiji of their terror as cyclone's winds smashed the house in which they sheltered.

The classrooms at Lovo Sangham School north of Nadi should be brimming with children taking lessons.

When they leave their home the thieves come. So they are staying put, not willing to lose their possessions when they have already lost their homes.

As cyclone Winston bore down on his hilltop home Seru Pepeli had to make the hardest decision of his life.

A survivor of Cyclone Winston talks of the horror and devastation left in the wake of the storm.

Almost every tree along the highway is either uprooted or split, branches ripped off during the cyclone littering each side of the road and damming creeks.

Relief workers fear news of widespread devastation once connections with outlying villages are restored.

A tornado has left a trail of destruction in southern Sydney leaving several people with minor injuries and many homes and businesses without roofs.

A giant sinkhole at a Queensland camping spot is now relatively stable and may have actually been a landslide, a geotechnical engineer says.

The eruption of a volcano on a small Papua New Guinean island on July 31 has again wreaked havoc on the lives of its inhabitants.

It was a heartening moment captured amid overwhelming bleakness: a 3-year-old Hurricane Katrina survivor wrapping her chubby little arms round the air force pararescue jumper who had rappelled into New Orleans to save the girl's family from floodwaters.

Typhoon Soudelor is set to shortly make landfall in Taiwan, with the storm forcing thousands to evacuate.

The head of a listed landlord with $2.2 billion of property investments has called for tax issues on seismic building strengthening to be addressed.

Mountaineer Peter Hillary, son of Everest conqueror Sir Ed, describes in vivid detail the impact of last month’s Nepal earthquake.

Four years on from the Fukushima nuclear disaster - brought about by a devastating earthquake and tsunami - Tomioka remains a desolate place.

Wellington's wild weather has claimed the life of an elderly man, whose car became submerged as raging floodwaters rose across the area.

A New Zealander who had been unaccounted for since the first earthquake in Nepal has been identified as safe and sound in Kathmandu.

Emergency services in Tauranga responded to multiple calls about a tornado. The New Zealand Herald understands up to 15 roofs have been damaged or lifted off after the area at Mount Maunganui was hit at 8.45pm. Firefighters responded to numerous calls about roofs being ripped of houses around Lodge Ave and Links Ave.

Insurers may face higher costs over the Canterbury earthquake after several firms recently increased estimates for the final bill, according to the Reserve Bank.

Survivors of the avalanche at Everest Base Camp have described how an NZ-based doctor helped save the lives of 25 people, despite being wounded herself.

A catastrophic volcanic eruption in Auckland's industrial heart could have an economic impact of up to $10 billion in the first year.

A lack of medical facilities is heightening the crisis for people in quake-ravaged Nepal, said New Zealand aid agency MEND.

A fifth person has died as a result of an extreme downpour and flash flooding in southeast Queensland.

Three New Zealanders thought to have been missing in Nepal have contacted their families to let them know they're safe, as three remain unaccounted for.

Kiwi backpacker Doran Graham spent more than three hours smashing through concrete and moving debris to help rescue a man trapped under rubble in Nepal.

The full scale of the devastation in Nepal is only just beginning to come to light leaving the country facing a host of challenges.