Almost every tree along the highway is either uprooted or split, branches ripped off during the cyclone littering each side of the road and damming creeks.

Relief workers fear news of widespread devastation once connections with outlying villages are restored.

A tornado has left a trail of destruction in southern Sydney leaving several people with minor injuries and many homes and businesses without roofs.

Experience tells us that the best way to help our island neighbours is to donate to a reputable aid agency and make sure that your cash donation reaches those who need it most.

Fire crews are battling serious blazes in Dunedin and Dunback. Two homes in Saddle Hill are burning and a third is threatened. Some residents have been evacuated.

A giant sinkhole at a Queensland camping spot is now relatively stable and may have actually been a landslide, a geotechnical engineer says.

The eruption of a volcano on a small Papua New Guinean island on July 31 has again wreaked havoc on the lives of its inhabitants.

It was a heartening moment captured amid overwhelming bleakness: a 3-year-old Hurricane Katrina survivor wrapping her chubby little arms round the air force pararescue jumper who had rappelled into New Orleans to save the girl's family from floodwaters.

The head of a listed landlord with $2.2 billion of property investments has called for tax issues on seismic building strengthening to be addressed.

Mountaineer Peter Hillary, son of Everest conqueror Sir Ed, describes in vivid detail the impact of last month’s Nepal earthquake.

A day after new research into major "megathrust" earthquakes was revealed, a seismologist has been appointed as the first Professor of Earthquake Science at the University of Otago.

Scientists have uncovered evidence that two major earthquakes of the same type hit central New Zealand in the past 1000 years.

Four years on from the Fukushima nuclear disaster - brought about by a devastating earthquake and tsunami - Tomioka remains a desolate place.

Wellington's wild weather has claimed the life of an elderly man, whose car became submerged as raging floodwaters rose across the area.

A New Zealander who had been unaccounted for since the first earthquake in Nepal has been identified as safe and sound in Kathmandu.

Emergency services in Tauranga responded to multiple calls about a tornado. The New Zealand Herald understands up to 15 roofs have been damaged or lifted off after the area at Mount Maunganui was hit at 8.45pm. Firefighters responded to numerous calls about roofs being ripped of houses around Lodge Ave and Links Ave.

A catastrophic volcanic eruption in Auckland's industrial heart could have an economic impact of up to $10 billion in the first year.

A lack of medical facilities is heightening the crisis for people in quake-ravaged Nepal, said New Zealand aid agency MEND.

A fifth person has died as a result of an extreme downpour and flash flooding in southeast Queensland.

Three New Zealanders thought to have been missing in Nepal have contacted their families to let them know they're safe, as three remain unaccounted for.

Kiwi backpacker Doran Graham spent more than three hours smashing through concrete and moving debris to help rescue a man trapped under rubble in Nepal.

The full scale of the devastation in Nepal is only just beginning to come to light leaving the country facing a host of challenges.

Acting Prime Minister Bill English told Parliament that New Zealand stood with the international community in readiness to help.

The number of New Zealanders unaccounted for in Nepal is down to single figures, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.

Hundreds of climbers remained trapped on Everest yesterday as rescue teams raced to mount an evacuation before supplies run out.

The first smoke of the funeral pyres was wafting over what remained of Nepal's magnificent Hindu temples.

A leading charity has warned it could be years before Nepal fully recovers from the deadly earthquake that ripped through the country on Saturday.

Three days after the deadly earthquake that claimed more than 3700 lives, several New Zealand families continue to wait for news of their loved ones.