Fourth cyclone hits islands
2005-02-28 08:19
Wellington, New Zealand - Hundreds fled to storm shelters in the remote northern Cook Islands on Monday as the fourth cyclone in a month lashed the South Pacific nation.
Cyclone Percy, with winds of up to 200km/h an hour, passed near the islands' Pukapuka Atoll early Monday and was near Nassau island by mid-afternoon (02:00 GMT).
Pukapuka lost all contact with the outside world early on Monday. Contact was restored later in the day, and the island reported widespread damage but no casualties.
"They really would have copped it," said New Zealand MetService lead forecaster Steve Ready. "Not only from the wind but... the sea can come up with it too."
"Pukapuka is just a coral atoll," He said. "They would have had no protection at all."
The 15 small islands, home to about 20 000 people, lie half way between Hawaii and New Zealand.
The Cook Islands' National Emergency Management Centre said Pukapuka's 600 residents had moved to higher ground to shelter in the school, while 70 people from Nassau's only village had moved to its two main churches.
Nassau, which was still in contact, had reported heavy rain and winds had damaged houses, said the emergency center's spokesman, Chief Inspector John Tini.
A New Zealand air force plane taking emergency aid to the country's main island of Rarotonga - south of the worst-hit areas - could be used to assess damage in the north, Tini said.
Cyclone Percy was slowly heading southeast and was expected to turn more southward, passing to the east of American Samoa, Ready said.
He said the timing of the turn was critical for the Cook Islands' Rakahanga and Manihiki atolls, which lie east of Pukapuka.
Manihiki saw 19 of its people killed by Cyclone Martin in 1997.
Cyclone Percy struck the three islands of Tokelau, another Pacific island group northwest of the Cook Islands on Sunday, seriously injuring one person and washing two people out to sea. The pair were rescued.
New Zealand, which administers Tokelau, will provide NZ$500 000 (about R2m) in cyclone aid to the emerging nation of 1 400 people.
- AP