Vanuatu earthquake damage. Photo: Vanuatu Police
A Kiwi in Vanuatu says the mood has shifted around Port Vila's collapsed CBD building, with locals feeling it is unlikely they will find anyone else alive.
The death toll from Tuesday's magnitude 7.3 earthquake is around 16, but expected to rise.
The Chair of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council, Glen Craig, said from talking to people near the pancaked Billabong building, hopes have been dwindling.
"They've been marginalized. And I'd have to say, just due to the conditions and the heat, we haven't heard a lot... before, we were hearing the odd noise coming through," he said.
"From the people on the ground I've been talking to at the Billabong one - which is, of course, the only building that collapsed in the CBD; it's the one that, as you mentioned, did pancake - where the general consensus amongst the local population is that it is a recovery rather than a rescue now.
"We think they've recovered most, but there's still some in there."
Craig told said the rest of Port Vila was relatively unscathed, although there had been a large landslip.
"Out in the residential side of things, our communities, we've been largely... inconvenienced rather than really affected."
Almost all of Port Vila now had water, and power was also being restored suburb by suburb, he said.
"There will still be pockets of things that needs to be done but generally it's been an inconvenience and now we're getting it back up and running."
In his village of 6000 people, he did not know of any families that had been displaced by the quake, Craig said.
The summer holidays was an important time for the local tourism sector.
"Everyone was fully booked and then this happens. The hotels and the resorts ... are all ready for guests.
"It's so unfortunate. We are a tourism and agriculture-focused economy... We're looking for our first good summer, because we've got Jetstar, Virgin, Qantas... we've never had such a raft of international airlines flying in before.
On Thursday evening, Vanuatu President Nike Vurobatavu said the number of people dead was "around 16".
One consistent figure is the more than 200 people injured, with the hospital saying many patients were being treated for broken bones.
Meanwhile, Vanuatu police were urging people to come forward and report missing persons.
