Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston is heading westward and has already hit areas in the Lau group of islands as it tracks towards more populated areas.
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Hurricane and gale warnings have been posted across the South Pacific nation of Fiji as Tropical Cyclone Winston bears down on the islands.
It is expected to make landfall on Fiji’s most populous island – home to the capital city of Suva – on Saturday night.
Passing Vava’u earlier in the week as a Category Two storm that damaged crops and caused power outages, Cyclone Winston has made an about-turn and is now a Category Four cyclone with the potential to cause serious damage.
“On this track, the cyclone is expected to be located about 200km northwest of Lakeba, or about 170km northeast of Suva, at 5pm today”, the Fiji Met Service said.
The eye of the cyclone is now forecast to make landfall north of Nausori near Korovou.
Looking back through the records, which are admittedly short, the last time a tropical cyclone of this strength came this close to Fiji’s most populous island was 2012, when Cyclone Evan passed just to the west of the island as a Category 4 on the Australian scale.
The storm has meandered since it formed more than a week ago, scoring the rare feat of striking the same island – Vava’u – in the small island nation of Tonga twice in one week, as a Category 2 storm.
Red Cross teams in Tonga and Fiji are now reactivating their disaster preparedness plans and will conduct rapid damage assessments from the cyclone and have relief supplies on hand for affected families.
There are some indications that because people on the eastern side of Fiji aren’t used to seeing cyclones, there’s a lack of preparation for what could be a record-setting storm.
“That is a possibility that we can not eliminate right now, that is the reason for us issuing a hurricane warning in terms of swells and heavy rain”, Fiji meteorologist Misaeli Funaki told the ABC.
Fiji is one hour ahead of Melbourne and Sydney time.
“While sea-surface temperatures are not the “end-all-be-all” for tropical cyclones, warmer-than-average waters in the South Pacific are helping fuel Winston”.
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It said it expected winds to reach as high as 95-110km/h.
