Rescue workers search for survivors of the Vanuatu earthquake that killed 14 people and injured more than 200 others.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Vanuatu's capital was without water on Wednesday, a day after reservoirs were destroyed by a violent 7.3-magnitude earthquake that wreaked havoc on the South Pacific island nation, killing at least 14 people and injuring hundreds, and is expected For the number to rise.

Frantic rescue efforts, which began at the site of demolished buildings after the quake early Tuesday afternoon, continued 30 hours later, with dozens working through dust and heat with little water to search for those screaming for help inside. A small number of survivors were recovered from the rubble of buildings in the city center of Port Vila, also the largest city in the country, while others remained trapped and some were found dead.

The almost complete collapse of telecommunications has left people struggling to ensure the safety of their relatives. Some providers began to re-establish telephone service but communications were patchy.

The operating company said that Internet service was not restored due to damage to the submarine cable that feeds it.

The earthquake occurred at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles) and was centered 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the capital of Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands inhabited by about 330,000 people. A tsunami warning was canceled less than two hours after the quake, but dozens of large aftershocks continued to shake the country.

A government notice said that among the victims, four deaths were recorded at the main hospital, six in a landslide and four in a collapsed building, but the number had not been updated for more than 15 hours. More than 200 wounded were treated at Vila Central Hospital.

It is not clear how many people are still missing or dead, Katie Greenwood, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross for Asia and the Pacific, told The Associated Press from Fiji.

She added: “We have unconfirmed information coming from people at the search and rescue site and they are fairly confident that these numbers will unfortunately go up.”

The capital's main medical facility, Vila Central Hospital, was severely damaged and patients were transferred to a military camp. Healthcare services, already strained before the quake, were overwhelmed, said Clement Chibukolo, country director for Vanuatu at prominent Christian relief agency World Vision.

While electricity was cut across large areas of Port Vila, water shortages were the biggest fear among relief agencies. The National Disaster Management Office said that two large reservoirs serving the capital were completely destroyed.

Resident Melroy Cainton said people were joining long queues to buy water from stores, but they could only buy two or four bottles at a time. “People aren't really worried about electricity, they're just worried about water,” he said.

Eric Dorber, head of the Vanuatu field office, said UNICEF was recording a rise in cases of diarrhea among children, an indication that they had begun drinking contaminated water.

At least 10 buildings suffered major damage, many of which were in the busy downtown area full of shoppers at lunchtime when the quake struck. An unknown number of people were trapped inside, and Kenton, a resident, said rescuers had to direct their efforts towards where they thought people could be saved.

Michael Thompson, who runs a tour company in Vanuatu, was among the rescuers and posted a video on Facebook of frantic rescue efforts and dust-covered survivors on stretchers along with pleas for people to bring tools and water to the site.

A building housing a number of diplomatic missions in Port Vila – including those of the United States, Britain, France and New Zealand – was destroyed, with part of the building splitting open and the first floor leveled to the ground. The windows were crooked and the walls collapsed.

The US State Department said that its embassy employees were fine, but the building was no longer operational. The office was opened in July as part of a US drive to expand its presence in the Pacific to counter China's influence in the region.

New Zealand's Foreign Ministry said officials had counted all embassy staff. The Australian Foreign Ministry said its employees were fine.

Damage to the port and airport is likely to hamper relief efforts and economic recovery in a country that relies on agricultural exports and tourism. The airport was closed to commercial flights for another 72 hours, starting Wednesday.

But the runway was considered ready for the humanitarian flights of French engineers who arrived by helicopter and military vehicle from Australia and New Zealand, and were scheduled to begin arriving on Wednesday evening. They carry search and rescue personnel and equipment, as well as relief supplies.

Dan McGarry, a journalist living in Vanuatu, said there was a “massive landslide” at the international shipping terminal. The government said the main pier was closed.

Landslides isolated a number of villages, and Greenwood of the Red Cross said that communications had not yet been established with some coastal areas close to the epicenter. She added that it remains to be seen whether the devastated Port Vila city center is “just the tip of the iceberg or a kind of iceberg itself.”

Vanuatu's location in a subduction zone – where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate moves beneath the Pacific plate – means that earthquakes of magnitude greater than 6 are not uncommon, and the country's buildings are designed to withstand earthquake damage.

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Associated Press writers Mayuko Ono in Tokyo, Japan, and Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia, contributed to this report.

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