29 Jan 2009

Little damage in Tonga after high winds

2:52 pm on 29 January 2009

The Metservice in Tonga says there's been no major damage caused by winds which reached up to 285 kilometres in some areas yesterday.

This comes after the service had withdrew a cyclone alert yesterday afternoon despite Vava'u suffering severe winds and gales of up to 160-kilometres that hit near the Island of Tofua.

Ofa Faanunu, director of Meteorology says its made inquiries and has found there hasn't been major damage in the country.

"The national disaster office, I spoke to them this morning and there has been any reports to their office of majoy damages. While we have take off a warning to the northern Islands but its still in force for the southern Islands, its just the tail end of the cyclone."

Ofa Faanunu says the system trough the country suffered yesterday eventuated into the weakened cyclone experienced near Fiji.

The Fiji Metservice says cyclone Hettie isn't expected to threaten Kiribati or New Caledonia as its predicted to lose momentum before midnight tonight.