Disaster officials in Papua New Guinea expect to be able to give the all-clear for people to return home within a couple of days, following last week's destructive high tides.
About 30,000 people have been affected by waves which swamped the coasts of the northern provinces last week.
Many homes were destroyed along with some food gardens, but the deputy director of the National Disaster Office, Martin Mose, is confident life will return to normal quite quickly.
"Papua New Guineans are very resilient people and building up bush material houses does not take that long, probably takes a day or two to have it rebuilt again. Otherwise most of the villages affected, they have got their food gardens intact, so that is the most important part. If they have their garden intact then obviously normalcy for them will happen very quickly."
Martin Mose
