Death toll from Cyclone Pam disaster hits 24

The death toll from the Cyclone Pam storm which hit the Pacific nation of Vanuatu has risen to 24, Al Jazeera reports.

Over 3,000 people have also been displaced.

Meanwhile aid agencies and rescue teams from Australia and New Zealand had flown over the islands yesterday but have so far been unable to land because of flooding.

Speaking from Japan where he had gone to attend a seminar of response to emergency seminar, Vanuatu's president,Baldwin Lonsdale had appealedto countries for aid, stating that the island nation has lost years of development progress and must "start over" after the cyclone ravaged most of the islands' buildings.

Al Jazeera reporters say that the displaced people are spread across 37 evacuation centres, about a hundred people at each, with many choosing to remain in their destroyed homes "not only to start some rudimentary repairs, but also to protect what little they are left with".