When the severe cyclone hit, it coincided with a king tide, which caused considerable coastal damage.
The chief executive of the National Emergency Management Office, Paula Ma'u, said on 'Eua this wrecked a number of houses and offices and also eroded a graveyard.
He said some of the bodies had been recovered but others had been swept out to sea.
Mr Ma'u said people whose homes were inundated on 'Eua and also around Tongatapu's Fanga'uta Lagoon, had been rehoused in tents and supplied with kitchen equipment.
Sixteen houses on 'Eua and a number on the main island had been reported destroyed.
On Ha'apai, the road to the airport and a vital causeway link, which had been impacted and eroded by a series of storms earlier in the year, suffered further damage.
Mr Ma'u said the biggest impact from the cyclone was the sea surge, which had been put at three metres.
He said the impact of the surge on several resorts on the west of Tongatapu was huge with the repair bill likely to run into the millions.
Some plantations suffered significant wind damage but Mr Ma'u wasn't expecting food supply to be an issue at this stage.