Two people have died as Cyclone Yasa battered Fiji, authorities have confirmed.
The country has been assessing the damage after the powerful cyclone swept across the islands overnight.
Yasa, which has devastated parts of the country, has been downgraded to a category three storm but still packs gusts of up to 195 km/hr.
Thousands of people have fled their homes as authorities begin to assess the damage to properties and livestock.
Houses have been flattened, power lines brought down and crops destroyed after winds of up to 345 km/hr hitting the area overnight.
More than 23,000 people remain in evacuation centres however there have been no reports of caualties but assessment teams are still to get to affected areas.
Many homes have reportedly been destroyed and power and phones are down after winds of 240km/h - with gusts as high as as 345km/h.
The massive storm system is moving away from Vanua Levu towards Fiji's outer eastern islands.
Sakeasi Waibuta from Fiji's Met Service said the storm sat over Vanua Levu - Fiji's second largest island - for three hours.
More than 1400 people spent the night in evacuation centres, and there are already reports of widespread flooding and buildings flattened.
A 30-day state of natural disaster has been declared.
People in Fiji's northern division are described Cyclone Yasa as the scariest experiences of their lives.
"It's a nightmare," said Banuve Lasaqa Lusi, a resident of Labasa, the main town on Vanua Levu. "The thunderous sound of the wind and what is flying around is what's frightening."
She said the sound of the wind was deafening, and power and some communication had been cut out from the town.
Video from Bua, where the cyclone landed, shows sheets of torrential rain pelting the ground, and roofs being lifted by the sheer force of the wind.
From Labasa, Lusi said she had made some contact with the Bua region.
"People have had their houses flattened, have escaped with the clothes on their back and are sheltering under beds, under houses as they await help," she said.
"Help that most probably will come when the winds die down."
Correspondent Lice Movono told RNZ's Morning Report programme that where she is in the capital Suva, "it's definitely not normal, but we've been relatively okay".
"The devastating bit is watching reports of devastation, talking to people on the ground in the north western part of Fiji, particularly in Vanua Levu, and then earlier this morning in the north eastern parts of Fiji. We're talking to people who've lost their entire homes, talking to people in evacuation centres that were destroyed also.
"At this point people are still bunkering down and still waiting for safety, which should come round about midday.
"The words are... terrifying, frightening, people living in homes where the roof's been taken off and then sheltering under floors, entire farms just lifted away... an uncle I spoke to said 'it's like the mountain's naked', to describe the devastation to agriculture.
Most worrying, Movono said, was not being able to make contact with people in the province of Bua, on Vanua Levu, which became uncontactable about 8pm last night. She understands a cell phone tower was knocked out during the storm.
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said Yasa could quite easily surpass the devastation wrought by 2016's Cyclone Winston, which has been described as the strongest storm ever in the Southern Hemisphere.
He said the increasingly strong storms are "not normal. This is a climate emergency".
