Fijians last night were told to stay inside for a second straight night as officials scrambled to restore services and assess damage in the wake of a ferocious cyclone that left at least six people dead and destroyed hundreds of homes.
Winds from Cyclone Winston, which tore through the Pacific Island chain starting on Saturday, reached 285kph, making it the strongest storm in the Southern Hemisphere since record-keeping began, according to the Weather Underground Web site.
Although the weather calmed yesterday, a curfew was extended through early today and police were empowered to make arrests without a warrant to ensure order.
Authorities were responding quickly by clearing vital roads and trying to restore electricity.
George Dregaso of Fiji’s National Disaster Management Office said that two people on Ovalau Island died when the house they were sheltering in collapsed on them, and that another man was killed on Koro Island, although it was not clear how.
Authorities also said three people on the main island of Viti Levu were killed in the storm, but did not have more details.
Fijian Tourism Minister Faiyaz Siddiq Koya said that all tourists in Fiji were safe and that there was no significant damage to the majority of hotels on the main island.
Officials were trying to establish communications and road access to the hardest-hit areas, and said they would not know the full extent of the damage and injuries until then.
Cyclone Winston hit Fiji on Saturday and moved westward overnight along the northern coast of Viti Levu. Fiji’s capital, Suva, located in the southern part of the main island, was not directly in the cyclone’s path and avoided the worst of its destructive power.
“Truth be told, we’ve gotten off pretty lightly here in the capital,” UNICEF spokeswoman Alice Clements said. “It was still a pretty awful night. You could hear crashing trees and power lines, and popping rivets as roofs got lifted and ripped out.”
She said there was foliage everywhere that looked like it had been put through a blender.
About 80 percent of the nation’s 900,000 people were without regular power, although about one-third of them were able to get some power from generators, Dregaso said.
Landlines throughout Fiji were down, but most mobile networks were working.
Dregaso said there were 483 people who had evacuated from their homes and were staying in 32 emergency shelters. He said he expected the number of evacuees to rise.
Authorities were urging people to remain indoors as they cleared fallen trees and power lines. They said that all schools would be closed for a week to allow time for the cleanup, and that three universities would be closed until further notice.
The government declared a 30-day state of natural disaster, giving extra powers to police to arrest people without a warrant.
The government said the curfew would end at 5:30am today.
Clements said there was particular concern for people on the northern part of the main island and on smaller islands. She said that many would have lost their homes and livelihoods, and that some tourist resorts on the outer islands may have been damaged.
The airport reopened yesterday to allow emergency flights, Dregaso said, after many flights had been canceled on Saturday.
“As a nation, we are facing an ordeal of the most grievous kind,” Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama wrote on social media. “We must stick together as a people and look after each other.”
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