Floods in Papua New Guinea have killed 163 people, with 1,000 homes destroyed and thousands of people displaced, police said on Wednesday.
The floods in the South Pacific nation's east, caused by a tropical cyclone in the past week, have washed away roads and tracks in the remote mountainous region hindering relief efforts.
Aid only started reaching some remote villages on Wednesday when helicopters arrived from the capital Port Moresby.
"We have 163 people dead, 10 have died of starvation," local police spokesman David Terry told Reuters.
"We are having intermittent rains in parts of the province. In some areas the water is subsiding and in other areas there is still flooding," he said.
Health authorities are concerned about the spread of disease.
"The situation is very sad," said Terry, adding he expected the death toll to rise. "We need a massive relief effort to stop people starving."
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare chaired an emergency cabinet meeting on the disaster on Monday and said the flooding had affected about 145,000 people.
Papua New Guinea, Australia's nearest neighbor, is a nation of about 6 million people, where about 85 percent of people depend on subsistence farming.
