Ita leaves thousands homeless in PNG

Cyclone Ita has left an estimated 5,000 people homeless and destroyed thousands of food gardens in remote communities in Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay province.

A helicopter funded by the Australian government will survey the damage on some of the most remote island communities in the coming days.

The tropical weather system left a trail of destruction across Melanesia, including 23 deaths and the worst recorded flooding in the capital of the Solomon Islands, before moving on to PNG.

Cyclone Ita hit Queensland on Friday night causing flooding and major crop damage along the state's east coast, estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

PNG's Milne Bay provincial disaster coordinator, Eric Balaria, told Stefan Armbruster they are still trying to get an accurate picture of the impact.

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