Thursday, December 17, 2020

Giant waves feared as Fiji braces for Category 5 Cyclone Yasa | Al Jazeera

Cyclone Yasa

The Fiji government ordered a nationwide curfew on Thursday, including a ban on public transportation, with a potentially devastating cyclone expected to unleash powerful winds and flooding on the island nation within a day.

Cyclone Yasa, a top category five storm, is expected to bring winds of up to 250 kilometres per hour (155 miles per hour) and torrential rain across the South Pacific archipelago nation when it makes landfall by early Friday.

The country ordered a 14-hour nationwide curfew starting at 4pm (04:00 GMT) with people living in low-lying areas urged to move to higher ground before nightfall, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said in a video posted to Facebook.

“The impact for this super storm is more or less the entire country,” Bainimarama said in the video.

 Yasa would “easily surpass” the strength of 2016’s Cyclone Winston, he added, referring to the southern hemisphere’s most intense tropical storm on record, which killed more than 40 Fijians and left tens of thousands of people homeless.

More than 850,000 Fijians, or 95 percent of the population, live in the direct path of Yasa, said Bainimarama, adding that weather forecasts anticipated flash flooding and “severe coastal inundation” that included waves up to 10 metres (33 feet) high...

5 comments:

  1. Le cyclone Yasa s’apprête à frapper les îles Fidji, un cyclone de catégorie 5 peut-être le cyclone le plus violent que les Fiji aient jamais subi. Les populations vivant sur les côtes ont été évacuées mais deux Belges qui voyagent en voilier, Karine Favresse et Baudouin Michelet, et qui se trouvent en ce moment aux Fidji, y sont coincés à cause des mesures anti-Covid qui restreignent les mouvements des bateaux.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Les habitants des Fidji sont appelés ce jeudi à la plus grande prudence à l’approche du puissant cyclone Yasa qui ne devrait épargner aucune île de cet archipel du Pacifique Sud et provoquer des inondations et des vagues géantes.

      Delete
    2. Le cyclone de catégorie 5, la plus élevée, continuait à gagner en intensité en se dirigeant vers les Fidji, avec des rafales allant jusqu’à 325 km/h.

      Yasa doit toucher terre tard jeudi mais déjà de nombreuses parties de ces îles de quelque 900.000 habitants étaient inondées, coupant les routes et isolant des communautés.

      Delete
    3. L’agence météorologique Weatherwatch, basée en Nouvelle-Zélande, a indiqué que Yasa était un des cyclones les plus puissants observés dans le Pacifique Sud, et qu’il s’étendait sur une largeur de 300 km.

      Son impact devrait être plus fort que celui du cyclone Harold, également de catégorie 5, qui avait en avril semé le chaos aux Îles Salomon, mais aussi au Vanuatu, aux Fidji et aux Tonga.

      Delete
  2. As of 00:10 GMT on Friday, Cyclone Yasa has slightly weakened to category 3 storm, according to the Fiji Meteorological Service. It missed the most-populated area around the capital, Suva in the southern main island of Viti Levu, where an estimated 850,000 people live.

    One person was confirmed dead in the town of Labasa in Vanua Levu island, according to the FBC News. The fatality was seeking shelter inside his home when part of the building collapsed and pinned him.

    According to Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, the second fatality is a three-month old baby from the Western Division in Viti Levu island. He did not announce other details.

    ReplyDelete

Only News

EL News

Blog Widget by LinkWithin