PORT VILA – Cyclone Pam, possibly the worst cyclone in the Pacific’s history, slammed directly into the tiny South Pacific archipelago Vanuatu early Saturday, killing at least eight people and leaving thousands homeless, according to reports from aid organizations.

Unicef New Zealand executive director Vivien Maidaborn said the early reports indicate that the disaster “could potentially be one of the worst in Pacific history.”

The huge cyclone hit Vanuatu dead centre after a last-minute change of course to the west.

At one point, wind speeds reached 340kmh, according to some reports.

The sheer size of the devastation is only beginning to trickle out because almost all power and communications have been cut to much of Vanuatu, a string of 65 islands.

Save the Children’s Nicola Krey told CBS Radio News that she expects many homeless as rescue teams fan out across the archipelago.

“Today we’ve only counted 1500 people in an evacuation centre in Port Vila,” she said. “That leaves tens of thousands of people unprotected from that type of storm.”

Save the Children’s director Tom Skirrow told Reuters the conservative figure of eight dead so far came from the country’s National Disaster Management Office and was based on reports from hospitals and paramedic services.

“The immediate concern is for a very high death toll but also an enormous amount of destruction and devastation,” Sune Gudnitz, regional director for the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination for Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA), said.

Oxfam, the international aid agency, said its staff on the ground in Vanuatu reported a “complete destruction of homes,” with three-story high trees completely uprooted and small communities left with almost no homes standing.

“We have no power or running water and are still not able to move around freely,” Collett van Rooyen, Oxfam’s Vanuatu Country Director Colin Collett van Rooyen reported.

“The scale of this disaster is unprecedented in this country and the proud people of Vanuatu are going to need a lot of help to rebuild their homes and their lives.”

Chloe Morrison, a World Vision emergency communications officer in Port Vila, said the aid group was unable to account for many of its own 76 staff on the islands.

She said authorities did a good job Friday moving thousands of people in Port Vila into 23 evacuation centres. With the winds and rain easing Saturday, many people stepped out only to find that their homes were missing a roof or had disappeared, and were forced to return to the shelters.

“It’s still really quite dangerous outside. Most people are still hunkering down,” she said

She said she’s hearing reports of entire villages being destroyed in more remote areas, but that poor communications have made it difficult to make a full assessment.

Alice Clements, a spokeswoman for relief agency UNICEF in Port Vila, said the capital had been devastated by the storm.

“It looks like a bomb’s gone off,” she said. “Tourists who have been to Port Vila wouldn’t recognise it.”

She said trees and tin roofing were scattered across roads making it impossible for cars to get through. Broken shutters and glass from blown out windows was everywhere she looked, Clements said.

The president of Vanuatu, Baldwin Lonsdale, told media: “I do not really know what impact the cyclone has had on Vanuatu.”

“I am speaking to you today with a heart that is so heavy,” he said. “I stand to appeal on behalf of the government and the people to give a helping hand in this disaster.”