TC Tino

The wharf is out of operation after it was damaged during Cyclone Tino on Friday.

Rotumans have since taken to social media calling for the relocation of the wharf to the other side of the island at Motusa.

The Director of Fiji's National Disaster Management Office, Vasiti Soko, said it would look into the relocation once it received an assessment report from the local commissioner.

The National Emergency Management Committee (NEMC) has confirmed that  survey and assessment teams are being sent out to the outer islands of Ha’apai, Vava’u, Niuatoputapu and Niuafo’ou to assess damage caused by Cyclone Tino.

Prime Minister Dr Pohiva Tu’ionetoa and his delegation, including the Minister for MEIDECC, Poasi Tei were on Ha’apai earlier today to view first hand damage left behind by the category 2 cyclone.

The storm, which reached category three cyclone status, wreaked havoc in parts of the central South Pacific over the past week.

Ha'apai's governor, the Reverend Mohenoa Puloka, said while damage to housing had been minimal and there was no loss of life, a major causeway connecting the two largest islands in the group had been badly damaged.

Mr Puloka said the causeway connected Lifuka, where the hospital and airport is, with the island of Foa.

Mr Tei, while chairing the National Emergency Management Committee (NEMC) this morning at the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO) said the updates from Ha’apai and Vava’u confirmed this.
The two islands suffered the most from category 3 Cyclone Tino, which went through the Kingdom yesterday and this morning.
“That is great news,” Mr Tei said.
“That no one was injured and there was no casuality from the cyclone. We are grateful to all those who worked around the clock to help prepare the people for the cyclone and for them to take action accordingly.”

Few of the country's 14 islands were spared damage, said Sumeo Silu, the director of the country's disaster management office. Two hundred people had been evacuated on main island Funafuti alone, he said, as reports of significant damage to infrastructure came in from outer islands.

"It's quite devastated," Mr Silu said.

On Funafuti on Friday, the normally calm and shimmering lagoon was stirred into a raging muddy cauldron. In the tempest, two giant barges were shunted from their moorings onto the beach, said Semi Malaki, a local broadcaster.

The storm brought winds of up to 180 km/hr and torrential rain but it had weakened and moved out of the area and cyclone warnings had now ceased.

There had been no reported casualties or deaths from the storm but many areas in Ha'apai remained without power today.

Ha'apai MP Veivosa Taka said the main priority was getting power restored.

"First to connect the electrics; second, advice for the people to recover the crops, ( all the crops are damaged); and also to fix the main roads," he said.

The storm was expected to pass directly over Tongatapu overnight with the capital, Nuku'alofa on track to take a direct hit, instead the cyclone just passed to the North of Tongatapu without its high winds and heavy rain.

But the northern Tongan groups of Vava'u and Ha'apai were being hammered by destructive storm force winds and torrential downpours, with gusts estimated at 180km/hr yesterday.

The storm was upgraded to a category three on Saturday morning as it continued to intensify in the waters near Fiji's Lau group, with sustained winds predicted to increase to as much as 140km/h in the coming hours.

The cyclone showed little sign of relenting, said Stephen Meke, a forecaster at the Fiji Meteorological Service, and was on track to pass very close to, or even directly over, Tonga's main island Tongatapu and the low-lying capital, Nuku'alofa.

Meanwhile, preparations are underway in Tonga with the capital, Nuku'alofa, sitting directly in Tino's path.

The cyclone, which was upgraded to a category one early on Friday morning, was strengthening as it sat the south of Fiji's western Rotuma island, the Fiji Meteorological Service said.

But it was gathering strength as it moved southeast, where it was heading straight for Fiji's second-largest island, Vanua Levu.

Warnings had been issued for much of the country, with torrential rain, strong winds, and damaging swells forecast.