More rain is expected this weekend in the Federated States of Micronesia as emergency officials continue to count the cost of a devastating typhoon which struck Chuuk Island this week.
Typhoon Chataan lashed Chuuk for two days with winds of up to 112 kilometres, torrential rain and high seas, which destroyed coastal villages and caused landslides.
The Chuuk Disaster Office says the confirmed death toll is now 33 but that number will rise.
The disaster coordinator Erick Paul says ten people are missing and he holds no hope they will be found alive.
John Sound from the Disaster office says the further rain will impede efforts
to rescue those trapped by the landslides.
"some of these places have continued to slide down...I went to Tonoas..one of the slides went from four hundred to five metres long ...and two hundred to three hundred metres wides and carried the houses donw and buried them. We have now shelters ...we are trying to find out how many are in each of thoses shelters because people are in school buildings, they are just homeless...they clothes they have own is all they have"
John Sound..
State officials in the FSM are appealing for international aid.
