Transcript
Confusion, exhaustion and fear are the order of the day in Hela and neighbouring Southern Highlands provinces amid ongoing significant aftershocks.
In the early hours of this morning, a magnitude 6.7 quake struck in the same region.
Speaking from the provincial capital Tari, Hela's police commander Thomas Levongo, says there are now more people in need.
Logistical help from companies such as Oil Search and ExxonMobil, who commercialise the region's oil and gas fields, is vital to both relief and assessment efforts, which are heavily reliant on helicopters.
The damage cause to the region's airstrips has prevented bigger planes getting in.
The MP for Komo where the major quake's epicentre was, Manasseh Makiba, says the response of national disaster teams has been too slow.
He spoke of a region in shock.
As stories trickle in from affected communities, harrowing accounts are piling up.
A PNG journalist, Scott Waide, has just visited a village where 11 people died when the mountainside came crashing through.
"There's a kid who is in grade 5. He goes to school in Margarima - Margarima is very far away from his village. He came back to ask his parents for school fees [but] on his way back his whole family was wiped out - his siblings, his mother, his father and an uncle have all died. So he's the only one in the family left." 19 sec
While the death toll hovers near 80, there could be dozens more bodies buried by landslides
Meanwhile, Hela people are having trouble sleeping and suspect a malign force is causing the quakes.
The Komo MP called for answers.
As many as 150,000 people in the region are believed to be in urgent need of supplies: medicines, water and shelter in particular.
Tari local Moses Komengi says there's an acute need for tents because people are too afraid to stay in their homes.
PNG's government says it has transferred money to the affected districts for the immediate disbursal of relief supplies, but Moses Komengi says that in Tari there is little sign of this.
All he can do is wait while hoping that the even bigger quake locals all appear to fear doesn't materialise.
