Cyclone Heta packing winds of up to 300kph "virtually flattened" the main town in the tiny Pacific nation of Niue leaving at least one person dead, officials said yesterday.
Locals described the storm carnage as the worst in living memory.
Although communications and electricity have been wiped out on the island, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs managed to contact their High Commissioner on the island, Sandra Lee, by satellite phone.
Ministry spokesman Brad Tattersfield said a woman was killed and her baby seriously hurt when their house in the capital Alofi collapsed.
"She [Lee] says that the main town, Alofi, has been flattened. This is an initial observation, so it's not scientific, there may be some houses still standing, but it's really bad," he said.
Heta was listed as a category five cyclone -- the most severe rating -- and locals described the damage as the "worst in living memory," Tattersfield said.
"Houses around the island are destroyed, the hospital has been damaged, a fuel dump, and a satellite dish they use for communication has been damaged."
It could be some time before regular communications are established with the island's 1,500 residents.
"Power and phone links are down, roads closed, crops badly damaged. But the airport runway is operational, so that's one bit of good news."
New Zealand officials met yesterday morning to assess what could be done to provide aid and an Air Force plane was being prepared to rush emergency supplies to Niue this morning.
"The initial relief flight will depart as soon as it is loaded," Transport Minister Paul Swain said.
"It will carry tarpaulins, blankets, water and water purification equipment."
Swain said two assessors would be on board as would Niue's Premier, Young Vivian, who has been in Auckland with his wife who died this week.
"I believe a number of houses have been severely damaged ... and the hospital was damaged," he told National radio, adding he would leave the funeral arrangements to his children in order to return to Niue.
New Zealand Metservice severe weather meteorologist Steve Ready said Heta was yesterday moving steadily away from Niue into the open waters of the south east Pacific.
Niue was also battered by high seas, as the cyclone moved to the south of the island overnight.
The cyclone has already wreaked havoc in the Tokelau Islands, American Samoa and Samoa.
Niue, a 260km2 island, is one of the world's smallest nations.
Vivian said he fears some of Niue's citizens will leave rather than rebuild after the cyclone.
Faama Viliamu, the sales manager for the Niue Tourism office in New Zealand, said he had spoken by satellite phone to his sister Lofa Kulatea in Alofi who said the damage was severe.
"We've got a place there and it's pretty much gone," he said.
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