Cyclone Evan starts to move away from Fiji

Cyclone Evan: Danger not over for Fiji

NZ Herald,
18 December, 2012

 Tropical Cyclone Evan has passed Fiji, however authorities are still warning of strong winds and large swells this morning.

Fiji was yesterday battered by ferocious 270km/h winds, which uprooted trees and homes, ripped roofs off buildings and caused widespread power and water outages.

The Fiji Ministry of Information reported a total of 8016 people were sheltering at 137 evacuation centres, with 3646 in the north, 356 in the east, 2021 in the central division, and 1993 in Rakiraki.

The ministry said there were no reports of fatalities at this stage.

The Fiji Meteorological Service said the cyclone had weakened to a category 3 and was centred about 210km south of Nadi at 7am, and is moving south-southwest at 15kmh.

It is forecast to lie about 290km south of Nadi by 4pm today.

Flood warnings are in place for Mainimala, Wainibuka, Waidina, Rewa and Navua rivers, and low lying areas of Nausori.

With more rain to come, the Wainibuka River is 7.2 metres above critical.

The Rewa River is only 30cms below critical levels and still rising, while other rivers have also exceeded critical levels.

The next high tide is around 11.30am.

A hurricane warning for the Coral Coast, Vatulele, and nearby islands has been cancelled, as has a storm warning previously in place for the Mamanuca group.

However a gale warning remains in place for the Coral Coast, Kadavu, Beqa, Vatulele and nearby islands, with momentary gusts up to 110kmh possible, and strong wind and damaging heavy swell warnings remain in force for Fiji.

More than 3000 Fijians sheltered in evacuation centres and tourists sat tight in boarded-up hotels as Fiji entered darkness and the worst of the storm.

With winds stirring up massive swells, two ships ran aground near the entrance to Suva Harbour.

The bulk carrier Starford, believed to be carrying equipment for a Chinese railway company, dragged its anchor at 11.30am and was pushed on to the reef close to the entrance.

The container vessel Captain Tasman was last night aground on the east side of the harbour entrance with a full load of containers.

Sangay Prakash of the Fijian Metservice said heavy winds between 60 and 110 knots per hour had hit the Nadi and Lautoka areas with "destructive force".

He said the most damaging winds would likely come overnight.

Yesterday, there were reports of more than 12 houses being blown away in Lautoka.

Families reportedly lost all their belongings after winds tore apart the homes.

A resident in the area said that of the 18 homes there, only five houses remained standing, Fiji Village reported.

Nadi, where hundreds of New Zealanders were sheltering in boarded-up hotels, was expected to endure hurricane-force winds until early this morning.

Steve Delany, holidaying at Denarau Island, told 3 News that despite the wild weather, he felt as safe as was possible in the situation.

"I think the major concern is for Fijians themselves, who don't have half the protection that we have."

New Zealander Michael Toms, who has lived in Fiji for nearly 45 years, said his Pacific Harbour house had been pounded by high winds all day, bringing down a tree and clothes line in his back garden.

He was worried about high tide later in the night because a river which ran beside his property was already carrying large amounts of brown water.

"We used to always say, not as bad as Bebe, but this is now the benchmark we're going to remember as the worst."

Joanna Underwood of Nadi said she had eight family members at her home and friends who had flood-prone homes were arriving.

"We have nothing else to do here at the moment except stay inside and watch the wind blow everything outside."

Flights in and out of Fiji have resumed this morning, with the first flight for Auckland due to depart at 8.45am. Airlines have put on more services to clear the backlog after flights were cancelled yesterday.

The Fijian Government imposed a curfew for all public transport which prevented any vehicles from operating overnight. It is feared Evan could be as devastating as Cyclone Kina, which killed 23 people and left thousands homeless in 1993.

On its projected track, Evan's centre would keep just offshore of the west coast of Viti Levu before gradually turning south from early this morning.

The cyclone, the first of the season in the South Pacific, was expected to move away from Fiji later today, but not before pounding Nadi further.

Prime Minister John Key this morning said the Government had received a formal request for help from Fiji overnight.

"We're in the process of working through that this morning. The same is true with Samoa - we're working through an assessment of the damage and where we might best be able to help," he told TV3's Firstline.

Mr Key said part of the help would be monetary assistance.

"There's reasonably widespread damage in both Samoa and Fiji, so they'll need to restore a lot of their core infrastructure and there will be damage to that critical infrastructure."

Mr Key said the Government had not yet settled on a figure for how much assistance would be offered, but an announcement on an immediate up-front sum was likely in the next two days.

"And then typically the pattern is we tend to top that up after we've had a bit of chance to look further afield."

Mr Key would not name a figure, but in the past it had been in the millions rather than tens of millions.

"That's typically been the pattern, but let's have a look and see what they need and where we might be able to deploy some of our services to help them."

Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Lautoka, Fiji's second biggest city, had suffered significant damage, and Evan was going to pass closer to Nadi that had been hoped.

Despite the political differences between Fiji and New Zealand, providing aid to Fiji is not a particular challenge, Mr McCully told Newstalk ZB.

"Last time they had flooding problems we provided a Hercules that worked very closely with their military - conducted a sort of air-bridge service.

"I suspect something similar will be called for this time around as well."

Mr McCully said New Zealand had an acting high commissioner who had been very active in the last few days and was ready to help.

So far there had been no reports of New Zealanders being in difficulty.

"In Nadi, where we see a concentration of people holidaying, it appears that the accommodation providers have gone to some lengths to make sure that people have been secure."

Mr McCully said more than four thousand people have been in evacuation centres in Fiji, and a number of New Zealanders will be amongst them.