Fijians in remote places were being urged on Thursday to immediately bury loved ones who died in a powerful cyclone rather than waiting for autopsies, as tens of thousands remained homeless and living in evacuation shelters, officials said on Thursday.

Aid began trickling in to the outer reaches of the South Pacific archipelago. The death toll from Cyclone Winston, the worst storm ever recorded in the southern hemisphere, remained at 42 but officials at Fiji's National Disaster Management Office fear that figure will rise.

Officials from the disaster agency estimate that 35,000 people are sheltering in evacuation centers, some of which are damaged and running short of food and other supplies. Some 900,000 people live in the archipelago of more than 300 islands