At least 14 people are now known to have died on the Caribbean island of St Lucia after Hurricane Tomas triggered landslides, officials say.
Tourism minister Allan Chastanet told local radio that the southern town of Soufriere had been worst hit and resembled "a war zone".
The storm, which struck at the weekend, also battered the island of St Vincent.
Tomas, now a tropical storm, is veering towards Haiti where thousands are still homeless after January's earthquake.
In St Lucia, Prime Minister Stephenson King declared a state of emergency and appealed for international assistance, local media reported.
Bridges were destroyed, and some of the worst-hit communities in the south could only be reached by boat.
"Recovery efforts are very slow. Our efforts to get help to the ravished community have been weakened as a string of fires in homes brings us to our knees," a firefighter in the capital Castries told the BBC.
He said the water mains were empty and that trying to get water to the fires "was an exercise in near futility" due to the mountainous landscape.
Tomas, downgraded from a hurricane on Sunday evening, lashed islands in the eastern Caribbean with sustained winds of 75mph (120km/h).
BBC News
