Cyclone devastates tiny Pacific island

The worst cyclone in living memory has smashed into the tiny South Pacific island state of Niue, killing a woman and seriously injuring several people including her baby.

Tropical cyclone Heta, with winds of almost 120 mph, slammed into the island of about 2,100 people just east of the international dateline.

“I’m absolutely worried for my little country,” Niue Premier Young Vivian, who has declared a national disaster, told Radio New Zealand in Auckland.

The cyclone also veered close to several other tiny Pacific island nations, which suffered moderate damage, destroying homes, crops and causing flooding, according to Australian aid officials.

Vivian, who had left his island nation before the cyclone struck to attend the funeral of his wife, waited in the New Zealand city of Auckland for contact to be re-established with Niue after it bore the brunt of Heta’s winds.

A preliminary report from New Zealand’s envoy on the island – reached by satellite phone – said there was widespread damage there to crops and buildings, according to New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Niue remained largely cut off from the outside world today after satellite links and power were shut down to protect machinery as the cyclone approached.

More Niueans live in New Zealand than on their isolated islands, because of a lack of jobs there.

New Zealand forecasters said the storm was located about 310 mile) southeast of Niue today and appeared to be weakening.

The Australian government’s aid agency AusAid said it would send aid to Niue and the neighbouring island nations of Samoa, Tonga, the Wallis Group of islands and Tokelau, which had not been hit as badly.

An Australian official planned to join a New Zealand air force plane flying to Niue today to help with an initial damage report, AusAid said in a statement.

Aid officials from Australia, New Zealand and France -which maintains a presence in the Pacific with its New Caledonia territory and several smaller islands- already had agreed to coordinate their relief efforts.

Extensive damage but no deaths or serious injuries have been reported from Samoa. Houses have lost their roofs, roads have been blocked and coastal villages inundated. Damage to banana, breadfruit, grapefruit and other crops was also extensive.

AusAid said Tonga has also suffered moderate damage to crops and some housing and the Wallis Group of islands reported crops destroyed and coastal flooding. Damage to Tokelau is reported to be minimal.

Commercial flights between New Zealand and Samoa’s capital of Apia were expected to resume today. Staff at Apia’s international airport were assessing the airport’s facilities and working systematically to re-establish its navigational systems.