Doctors at the only hospital in Papua New Guinea's tidal wave disaster zone - Wahiu Catholic health centre at Aitape - say it resembles a battlefield dressing station.

The man in charge says they are doing war surgery. People with smashed-up bodies are being delivered to them by the hour, and some are having to be treated on the floor.

Brother Gary Hill, who has been a health extension officer in Papua New Guinea for 38 years, told me of how yesterday he was pulling dead bodies from the lagoon behind what was once a village, when he heard some splashing.

He found a woman alive, but with a badly broken leg. She'd spent the night trying to keep her head above the water, surrounded by five dead bodies. She's been taken to the provincial hospital for emergency treatment.

Burial

In the village of Nemis, which was obliterated by the tidal wave, one man was burying his wife. She had lain trapped in their house when it was crushed by the force of the tidal wave on Friday night.

It is no longer recognisable as a house; it's just a pile of debris on the ground. There's not a single house left in the village.