Transcript
The director of Tuvalu's disaster management office, Sumeo Silu, says about 20 families are still at evacuation centres in the capital of Funafuti.
He says their homes were completely destroyed by Cyclone Tino, whose eye passed hundreds of kilometres to the south.
But recovery has been boosted this week with a $US6.2 million grant from the World Bank.
The Bank's representative for the Pacific, Lasse Melgaard, says it will help restore critical services.
"The World Bank expects the government of Tuvalu to meet the most pressing needs. To rehabilitate the most critical and damaged infrastructure. The outer islands have been particularly hard hit and rehabilitating, reconstructing infrastructure is both complex and expensive. But the resources are there and they're available for the country to get back on its feet."
Sumeo Silu says food security remains a major concern given ocean waves, whipped up by the storm, inundated gardens, while strong winds uprooted plants and damaged banana and breadfruit trees.
He says lifeline infrastructure including power, communications and water facilities have also been damaged.
"Supplies like food rations have been distributed using our normal boats while the patrol boats are being used by the assessment teams."
Although a state of emergency remains, life is beginning to return to normal for most Tuvaluans.
Funafuti resident Luiani John says many people have started returning to their homes.
"It's back to normal now. The weather, the workers. They're all back to work. The students - they've gone back to school especially the secondary school students because the boat was delayed due to Tropical Cyclone Tino. But now they're already back at school."
Mr Melgaard says the grant called the Catastropher-Deferred Drawdown Option is a format the World bank has used for over a decade in middle-income countries.
But he says within the last three years, the Option has been rolled out so that even the poor countries like many Pacific islands are able to benefit.
"You can think of it like a debit card that we give to the government and we say you have the resources here. When you declare a state of emergency, you can use this debit card so that you have access to instant financing. So it's a new and quite novel instrument that we have to help countries that are especially exposed."
Another Funafuti resident, Yvette D'Unienbille, has welcomed the World Bank's support.
"It will greatly help recovery work. We have received some reports from the outer islands that there were quite some damage that were done by tropical cyclone Tino to houses, homes and buildings mainly infrastructure. And even the plantations on most of the islands were badly damaged."
The Tuvalu government says an assessment team returned from the southern islands last week and is now headed to the central and northern islands.
