SYDNEY (Reuters) – Fijian officials are assessing the damage today after one of the most powerful storms recorded in the southern hemisphere tore through the archipelago, with early reports of widespread devastation in remote villages and one confirmed death.
Reports from the ground said entire villages had been wiped out by Cyclone Winston, a Category 5 tropical cyclone that packed winds of 230 kph (143 mph), with gusts of up to 325 kph (202 mph).
The storm hit Fiji late yesterday, having changed direction at the last minute to spare the capital Suva the full force of its winds.
“Some villages have reported that all homes have been destroyed,” Jone Tuiipelehaki of the United Nations Development Programme tweeted late yesterday. “50 homes have been reported destroyed in the Navaga village in Koro Island.”
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had offered to send a P-3 Orion aircraft to carry out aerial surveillance of the outer-lying islands.
“At this stage, I believe, the Fijian Government is coming to terms with the damage,” Bishop told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Fijian authorities confirmed that an elderly man had died on Koro Island when a roof fell on him.
Power, water and communications services were cut across much of the country of almost 900,000 people and a nationwide curfew imposed by Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama on Saturday evening remained in place.
Alice Clements, an official with UNICEF based in Suva, said she was extremely concerned about people in remote locations of the archipelago, which comprises around 300 islands.
