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 GIZO, Solomon Islands (AP) - Shops along the Solomon Islands' battered coastline reopened Monday as aid began trickling to the region's outer atolls, a week after an offshore earthquake sent walls of water slamming into the coast.
Vendors selling fruit and vegetables returned to their stalls along the main street of Gizo island for the first time since the magnitude-8.1 quake rumbled the Solomons' Western Province on April 2, killing at least 35 people and leaving 7,000 homeless.
The disaster destroyed several coastal villages and sent thousands of people scrambling to the hills, too frightened to return to their lowland homes.
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