Cyclone threatens Loyalty Islands

NEW CALEDONIA – People in New Caledonia’s Loyalty Island group are preparing for the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Hola.

The storm has been downgraded to a category three and is forecast to weaken further as it passed New Caledonia late yesterday, but was still generating sustained winds of 148 kilometres per hour.

The New Caledonian weather service said Hola was expected to spend the night from Friday to Saturday very near the Loyalty Islands gusting at around 200kph.

Information is still being gathered about the extent of damage to the northern islands in the Vanuatu archipelago.

Unicef’s Andrew Parker said communication in Vanuatu was fractured but it appeared homes and crops had been affected on the islands of Malekula, Ambrym and Ambae.

Parker said the National Disaster Management Office was co-ordinating the assessment and response to the disaster and the fact the government issued a red alert warning on Wednesday indicated it was taking the situation seriously.

He said there had been no reports of any casualties as people were more aware of how to stay safe after their experience of Cyclone Pam three years ago.

“We’re hopeful that the use of traditional building materials and the work that’s been done by the government and their partners post Cyclone Pam in terms of preparedness have equipped the families on the ground fairly well.”

Red Cross worker in Port Vila Denny Manvoi said reports suggest many houses had been blown out and crops uprooted.

He confirmed school classrooms were also damaged on Ambrym but there had been no reports of any injuries and the principal said the children were safe.

He estimated 20 to 30 per cent of houses on Malekula may be damaged or destroyed with the north of the island sustaining the worst effects of the cyclone.

Manvoi said most of the damaged homes were traditional style houses.

Hola is now moving away from Vanuatu in a southwesterly direction, but is expected to soon curve to the southeast.

Moving slowly over warm ocean between Vanuatu and New Caledonia as a category four storm, Hola was expected to weaken to category three late yesterday but was still packing severe wind gusts, torrential rain and pushing large waves onto the coasts of New Caledonia’s Loyalty Islands.

Forecasters say Hola is a small system and is expected to rapidly lose strength as it enters colder waters to the south.

MetService said that it was too early to be certain about the track of this system as it passes over New Zealand waters but “a number of the global weather models are indicating that it could pass near the upper North Island on Monday”.

“As the cyclone moves closer to New Zealand and over colder waters, it will undergo transformation into a mid-latitude depression but will still have strong winds and heavy rain associated with it.”

- PNC