Samoan students brace for cyclone

Samoan students were doing their best yesterday to carry on with studies in Fiji as the country’s authorities warned of flooding in some areas, under threat of two tropical depressions developing into a cyclone.

Tomorrow could be worse. “Winds may further increase to damaging gale force,” according to a forecast from the Fiji Meteorological Office for Saturday. One Samoan student studying at the University of the South Pacific was giving updates on his Facebook page yesterday. Ari Hazelman told Samoa Observer at 2pm that the “weather has just let up somewhat here in Suva but still windy outside and most places in the eastern and central divisions are closed.”

Earlier Mr. Hazelman quoted radio reports coming through that: “Nadi weather office gives strong wind warnings for the eastern parts of Viti levu and Vanua levu and other Island groups nearby as associated rain bands and strong winds affect this side from the tropical depression.

“ The weather was bad enough to cause a nationalwide power blackout, according to one Twitter feed. This seemed to be backed up by a Twitter post from state broadcaster, the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, that “FBC TV & Radio services are still holding strong through this weather. We're the only broadcaster On-Air!”

Mr Hazelman quoted radio updates as saying that depression “may develop into a cyclone by late Saturday or Sunday, but it will do so as it moves away from Fiji.

“Schools remain open according to the ministry of education but since different parts of the country are experiencing different weather patterns, parents are advised to contact schools in their respective divisions to see if a particular school is opened.

“Here in the eastern and central divisions, we had a windy and gusty night, as well as little rumblings of thunder and now, we have heavy rain,” said Mr. Hazelman.

Suva is on the south east coast of Viti Levu, the main island in Fiji.

Later, Fiji authorities announced that schools were closed in the central districts due to flooding. Some domestic flights were cancelled, according to reports, but international flights from Nadi, on the less affected west coast, continued to operate.

“There have been minimum delays out of Nadi however due to weather conditions en-route, all aircraft had to carry return fuel, which has led to offload of baggage,” reported Fiji Live.

“Weather permitting, all bags will be dispatched on the afternoon flights.” FlightStats, an online departure and arrival, reported delays of three hours to two flights, Fiji Airways and Qantas, to Auckland. Meanwhile, Accuweather service reported that a tropical cyclone with its strength equal to that of a tropical storm was expected to take shape gradually as the low spins near Fiji through yesterday “then crawls south eastward later in the week.”

“Due to the compact nature of the low, eastern parts of Fiji will be most at risk at experiencing flooding downpours,” the service reported.

“The threat of flooding rain and damaging winds will then shift to Tonga this weekend as the low tracks south eastward.”

Cruise Critic, a news site focused on cruise ships, reported that four Fiji port visits had been cancelled for the 1,950 passenger Sun Princess, with the vessel rerouting to Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.

A flight scheduled to leave Faleolo tomorrow for Fiji is not yet thought to be affected by the weather.

The Fiji Met Office was predicting only fresh winds by Monday.

By 3:10pm, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation was quoting the Nadi Met Office as saying that “there is a low to moderate chance of the depression developing into a cyclone in the next 24 hours.”