Updated: 7:23am – New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Niue, Ross Ardern, said locals were taking heed of the National Disaster Management Office’s advice about tropical cyclone Gita and its likely impact.
“Businesses and houses have put up protective shutters following the office’s first alert,” he said.
The cyclone was a category two when it tore through Samoa and American Samoa bringing damaging winds and torrential rain and gathered momentum as it made its way towards Niue.
The Fiji met service said tropical Cyclone Gita is now a category three.
It said the cyclone shifted in the last few hours and would be more to the east of Niue as it passes it tonight, but it won’t be as close as initially thought.
Meanwhile, Mr Ardern said they were experiencing the calm before the storm but that the National Disaster Management Office said Gita would make landfall during the night.
“We expect the cyclone to make its presence felt in the dead of the night. We are prepared for that.”
“We understand what the potential for the cyclone is and we’ve had good communications with the emergency management office and with our own people in New Zealand as well,” he said.
After Niue, Gita is forecast to head towards Tonga’s densely populated and low-lying main island, Tongatapu, on Monday.
-RNZ
Featured image: Police headquarters on Niue Photo: RNZI/Sally Round
