Tropical Cyclone Gita barreled through the Pacific island nation of Tonga, causing widespread flooding as it heads toward Fiji. The storm's winds blew the roof off of Tonga's meteorological service, damaging equipment.
Image: Reuters/Facebook/N. Langi
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A powerful Category 4 cyclone tore through the Pacific island nation of Tonga early Tuesday, causing extensive flooding and downing powerlines.
Officials described Cyclone Gita as the most powerful storm to ever hit Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa after it passed through shortly after midnight (1100 GMT).
The storm hit the island with destructive sustained winds of around 233 kilometers per hour (142 miles per hour), damaging about 40 percent of the buildings in the capital.
"It was a particularly bad night," Graham Kenna, from the National Emergency Office, told Radio New Zealand.
"I've been involved in disaster response for 30-plus years and it was the worst situation I've been in."
There were no confirmed reports of deaths due to the storm, but many people were injured, some seriously, Kenna told Reuters news agency.
Michael Morrah, a correspondent with Newshub New Zealand, tweeted a picture of Tonga's Parliament House which appeared to have been destroyed by Cyclone Gita as well as images of flooding around the capital.
The powerful winds also blew the roof off of Tonga's Meteorological Service building in Fua'amotu, damaging equipment inside and forcing authorities to have meteorological services in Fiji take over the weather bulletin.
The full extent of the damage to Tonga, home to some 75,000 residents, will not be known until later on Tuesday.
Other Pacific island countries are also bracing for Gita as the storm heads toward Fiji, Vanatu and New Caledonia in the next few days.
In 2016, Cyclone Winston killed 44 people in Fiji and Cyclone Pam killed 11 people in Vanuatu in 2015.
Small islands feel the wrath of climate change
Small islands such as Vanuatu in the Pacific are feeling the effects of climate change: Rising sea levels and extreme weather events threaten their very existence. Cyclone Pam is one very tangible signal.
Image: John Corcoran
Cyclone Pam destroys Vanuatu
Winds of up to 320 kilometers (200 miles) an hour ripped roofs off houses and downed trees in Port Vila in the island nation of Vanuatu. Category 5 Cyclone Pam hit the capital on Friday, March 13, 2015. Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale said the cyclones that the nation had experienced were directly linked to climate change. "We see the level of sea rise. [We see] change in weather patterns."
Image: Reuters/K. Paras
'Development has been wiped out'
President Lonsdale dubbed Cyclone Pam "a monster" that had devastated the country. "It’s a setback for the government and for the people of Vanuatu. After all the development that has taken place, all this development has been wiped out." He said 90 percent of the buildings had been destroyed in the capital alone. So far, six people were confirmed dead and 30 injured from the cyclone.
Image: Reuters/K. Paras
Cyclone hit multiple countries and islands
The cyclone devastated numerous countries across the South Pacific. "At least nine nations have experienced some level of devastation including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Fiji, Tuvalu, and Papua New Guinea," a statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Image: John Corcoran
Children at risk
The UN's Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that at least 60,000 children have been displaced or affected by the cyclone. According to UNICEF, hundreds of children in Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Kiribati are also affected. "It felt like the world was coming to an end," said UNICEF's Alice Clements, one of the organization's staff members, who was in Port Vila when the storm hit.
Image: Reuters/K. Paras
A wake-up call?
For years, small island nations such as Kiribati (pictured here) have been trying to combat climate change. Seychelles President James Michel said on Monday that Cyclone Pam was "a clear manifestation of climate change" and called on the international community to "wake up" to the impact of global warming.
Image: John Corcoran
Local efforts to protect the land
The inhabitants of the most vulnerable islands have been trying to secure coastal areas to prevent the tides from washing away the soil. While these measures assist in the short term, more needs to be done to tackle the root cause of rising sea levels.
Image: John Corcoran
'Natural disasters have worsened'
"Climate change has exacerbated the severity of natural disasters and [their] frequency, that's worsening the impacts on different communities," the president of island nation Kiribati, Anote Tong, said. Climate change and disasters are related, he added. Scientists, however, say it's impossible to attribute single weather events like Cyclone Pam to climate change.
Image: John Corcoran
UN urges action against climate change
"We must especially help the poorest and most vulnerable people," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in the aftermath of the cyclone. Prevention of natural disasters is a global task, he added. "Climate change is intensifying the risks for hundreds of millions of people, particularly in small island developing states and coastal areas." A new climate treaty will be negotiated later this year.
