Reports from Solomon Islands say thousands of people were forced to flee rising rivers as Cyclone Freda battered the country.
The director of the National Disaster Management Office, Loti Yates, says there are no reports of injuries from the cyclone, which tore rooves off houses and damaged vegetation.
The cyclone's centre passed the southern islands of Rennell and Bellona on Saturday and as the system strengthened, it headed into the Coral Sea.
In New Caledonia, the metservice issued what it calls a pre-alert for Cyclone Freda.
It says the system, with gusts of now up to 250 kilometres an hour close to its centre, is moving south at about 10 kilometres an hour.
Late on Sunday morning, it was about 700 kilometres off the northwest of the territory and it is forecastto be to its west by Tuesday night.
