Tonga declares an emergency as cyclone looms

TONGA declared a state of emergency yesterday and imposed a curfew in the capital Nuku’alofa as the Pacific island kingdom braced for a direct hit from Severe Tropical Cyclone Gita.

The cyclone has already created havoc in neighbouring Samoa and is threatening to become a Category Five superstorm as it approaches Tonga.

Acting Prime Minister Semisi Sika issued a nationwide alert, saying he was “satisfied that an emergency is happen- ing or is about to happen”.

The Fiji Meteorological Service predicts Gita will become a Category Five storm – the top of the scale – before reaching Tonga yesterday night.

It is already packing gusts of 275 kmh as it sits off the east coast of the country’s most populous island Tongatapu.

Truckloads of troops were helping people batten down as the capital prepared for the cyclone and evacuation centres were opened across the king- dom. Police also announced an overnight curfew in central Nuku’alofa “to further protect people and property”.

“We are urging people to seek refuge from this severe cyclone that could be the most powerful in the country’s history,” said police commissioner Stephen Caldwell.

Tonga’s Fua’amotuWeather Forecasting Centre warned residents of “very destructive hurricane-force winds”.

Gita slammed into Samoa on Friday, forcing the evacuation of some 200 people and causing widespread flooding, leaving many without power.

Philip Duncan, forecaster at New Zealand’s Weather Watch service, said current modelling showed it was to hit Tongatapu directly. “That’s a very serious situation, the capital is there, there’s over 75,000 people,” he said. “It’s pretty rare to see the perfect circle, the centre of that storm, going right over the top of such a small island.”