Devastated South Pacific islands still waiting for aid from Australia six days after cyclone

The situation seems scarcely credible in an age of sophisticated communications and in a region dominated by Australia, a wealthy nation. six days after a cyclone battered several remote South Pacific islands, it remains unknown how many people are dead or alive, while the first relief supplies will not arrive from Australia until Sunday at the earliest.

Tikopia and Anuta, two islands on the eastern fringe of the Solomons archipelago, were pounded for 30 hours last weekend by 220mph winds and waves the height of three-storey buildings.

Cyclone Zoe, one of the worst storms ever to hit the region, also swept across three smaller islets, flattening flimsy huts of branches and pandanus leaves and leaving the landscape stripped of vegetation.

The islands are home to nearly 4,000 people, yet the first plane to fly over the area in an attempt to discover the islanders' fate was chartered by a freelance New Zealand cameraman. It was not until Wednesday that an Australian air force plane, a Hercules, made a reconnaissance flight at the request of the Solomon Islands government. No food, water or medicines were dropped.

Conflicting views of the apparent humanitarian crisis were given yesterday. Officials in the Solomon Islands, a former British protectorate, and independent aid agencies in Australia expressed profound concern, pointing to aerial photographs showing at least two villages washed away. They said survivors faced dwindling food and water supplies.

But Alan March, assistant director general of the Australian government's aid agency, Ausaid, played down the situation. He said that while the air force crew saw damage to houses, crops and gardens, there were "no accounts of injuries, no evidence of casualties" – although he conceded that the assessment had been made from 1,500ft.

Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister, expressed similarly muddled optimism. "There did not appear from the aircraft to be people who were injured or casualties, but of course there could be," he said. "We're just not sure."

The islands in the far-flung Santa Cruz chain have no airstrips, and radio contact – the sole means of communication with the outside world – was down even before the category-five cyclone struck. No money was available to fix the transmitter. Internal wrangling delayed the departure of a rescue vessel, with a boat due to set sail last night from the capital, Honiara, on the three-day voyage.

The Australian government dismissed criticism of its sluggish response, saying the Solomon Islands were a sovereign state and Canberra had been obliged to await a request for help. John Anderson, the acting Prime Minister, suggested Honiara should have got in touch earlier.

Mr Downer said while the delay would be unacceptable if the disaster had occurred in an Australian city, "you are dealing with a very remote part of the world in an extremely poor country, and the sheer logistics of trying to get to this place ... it's not an easy situation".

Australia gives £12m a year to the Solomon Islands, which are reliant on foreign aid. Australia and New Zealand jointly funded the fuel and supplies for the relief boat. But the the Australian government's lackadaisical response has raised questions about its willingness to assist its impoverished neighbours in an era when extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity as a result of climate change.

Critics said yesterday it was not appropriate to wait for the Solomons – a bankrupt country in a state of near anarchy following years of civil war and maladministration – to act. Martin Karani of the Solomons' National Disaster Management Office said photographs taken from the Hercules showed the villages of Ravenga and Namo on Tikopia – the largest island – virtually washed away. "All that is left is the bare trunk of coconut trees, with the sand halfway up the trees," he said. "There's not even any sign of the houses left.

"We cannot say at this stage what happened to the 700 people living in both villages. We just hope that they were able to get out in good time."

Gabriel Teao, premier of Temotu province, also hit by the cyclone, said entire villages were buried on Tikopia.

Judith MacDonald, a New Zealand anthropologist who spent a year living on the island, said she feared hundreds were dead. "How young babies and old people will have survived, I don't know," she said. She said it was ridiculous to be offered reassurance because no dead bodies were seen by the Hercules crew. "You have to bury bodies within a day in the tropics," she said. "The Australian minimisation of the disaster is foolhardy."

A lake that serves as Tikopia's only fresh water source is believed to have been flooded by the sea, while islanders' food supplies are limited to root vegetables laid down for the winter months. Alfred Sasako, a Solomon Islands opposition MP, said water tanks would have been destroyed.

The islands lie 600 miles from Honiara and about 1,800 miles north-east of Australia, in a cyclone-prone area.

Inhabitants have experienced violent storms before. More than 100 people died in a cyclone in 1986 and a storm in 1992 wiped out most of Tikopia's houses and crops.

Geoff Mackley, a New Zealand cameraman who specialises in covering natural disasters, described scenes of total devastation, with every tree blown over or shredded. He saw people signalling to his light plane from the beach, waving sheets of white plastic.

The Hercules aid crew saw a different spectacle. They described islanders moving around, fishing, rebuilding their homes.

The freighter carrying food, water, clothing and shelter will take at least three days to reach the area, longer if it encounters bad weather.