Fiji cyclone

Fiji cyclone

Fiji cyclone : Suva – Fiji government announced on Tuesday the event of a disaster where they were the first reported deaths in the cyclone-devastated in the Pacific Ocean, where 17,000 people fled to evacuation centers.

Leader of the military regime, Voreqe Bainimarama, said although the full extent of the damage from Hurricane Thomas was not yet been determined, it was devastating.

“It is clear that as Mr Thomas had hit, and damage was overwhelming,” said in a statement.

There were unconfirmed reports of “death” of a small number of category four devastating hurricanes – said to be the worst in living memory – that hit the east ofFiji, Lau Group of islands on Tuesday, said National Disaster Management Office director Pajiliai Dobui.

“I think some have lost their lives but just a few examples,” Dobui told AFP.

“What we hear from some of the islands is a ruin, wind, storms, and often,” said Dobui.

Dobui said he had no further information on reported deaths, which requires confirmation by the police, but reports from the islands, suggested Thomas was the worst cyclone in living memory.

“Those who have suffered from hurricanes again I say that this is the longest and strongest they have come across – and most destructive”, he said.

The only confirmed deaths from the hurricane was a woman who drowned in rough seas off the second largest island Vanua Levu and approached hurricane over the weekend.

Hurricane Thomas cut a swathe of destruction through the north and east, where the average wind speed of 175 km (109 miles) per hour, a group of Pacific Islands for a second day on Tuesday.

The island of Viti Levu the main immune from the worst of the devastation but there were reports of widespread damage from Vanua Levu and the remote eastern islands, officials said.

Some villages in the coastal areas had been inundated by waves caused by storms, he said Dobui.

A state of disaster declared in the north and east of Fiji after the disaster of the National Council, chaired by Bainimarama, met Tuesday to assess damage reports early on, said NationalDisaster Management Office operations officer, Anthony Blake.

He told reporters have confirmed 73 homes affected in the north, but the number was expected to rise sharply.

The full extent of the damage was still not clear and communication links with many small islands and isolated areas of Vanua Levu remained spare Tuesday.

Electricity is still in many parts of Vanua Levu, and water services and sanitation have also been affected.