{"id":270034,"date":"2018-02-14T06:06:41","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T20:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=270034"},"modified":"2018-02-14T06:06:41","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T20:06:41","slug":"gita-destroys-tonga-homes-fiji-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/gita-destroys-tonga-homes-fiji-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Gita destroys Tonga homes; Fiji next"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-270034 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/gita-destroys-tonga-homes-fiji-next\/cyclone_pix1\/'>Cyclone_pix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-270035'>\n\t\t\t\tIn this image made from a video, people stand near a house damaged by Cyclone Gita in Nuku\u2019alofa, Tonga Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018.\u00a0The other photo shows the parliament house damaged by Cyclone Gita in Nuku\u2019alofa, Tonga.\u00a0(AP)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/gita-destroys-tonga-homes-fiji-next\/cyclone_pix2\/'>Cyclone_pix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)\u2014The Pacific nation of Tonga began cleaning up damage Tuesday from a cyclone that destroyed its Parliament House, as well as homes and churches, and was intensifying as it headed toward nearby Fiji. <\/p>\n<p>Cyclone Gita caused power outages after tearing through the island nation just south of the capital, Nuku\u2019alofa, with winds exceeding 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour) at landfall. Some 5,000 people stayed in evacuation centers overnight, according to officials, and an emergency was declared. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or deaths. <\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP)\u2014Officials in American Samoa began a full assessment Monday of damage caused by tropical storm Gita over the weekend. <\/p>\n<p>Lt. Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga says the storm caused widespread damage to homes and infrastructure. <\/p>\n<p>No injuries or deaths were reported. <\/p>\n<p>Power was slowly being restored after the late Friday storm. About 60 percent of the island\u2019s residents had power restored by Sunday, while 80 percent had water back by the same time. <\/p>\n<p>All public schools are closed this week as downed trees, storm debris and utility wires are removed from campuses. Some schools have water inside, and officials will conduct structural checks of the buildings.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>The cyclone was intensifying and was forecast to hit some southern Fiji islands Tuesday night, though it\u2019s likely to miss Fiji\u2019s major population centers, including the capital, Suva. <\/p>\n<p>In Tonga, publisher Pesi Fonua said fallen trees were littering the landscape and their absence was opening up new vistas. He said many homes had lost their roofs or were otherwise badly damaged. Many people had endured a terrifying night and were glad to be alive, he added. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of them haven\u2019t experienced anything like this before,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a real shock for them.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Tongan noble lawmaker Lord Fusitu\u2019a told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. it was a great disappointment the Parliament building had been knocked down. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuccessive legislatures over the years have suggested building a new Parliament House, and I guess that\u2019ll be a necessity now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>About 2,500 people living on two of Fiji\u2019s islands were at risk, the nation\u2019s National Disaster Management Office told Radio New Zealand. Director Anare Leweniqila said emergency supplies of food and water were being gathered and urged elderly and disabled people to begin moving into evacuation centers. <\/p>\n<p>The storm has strengthened since hitting Samoa and American Samoa last week, where it caused damage to buildings, widespread power outages and flooding. <\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump on Sunday declared an emergency in American Samoa, a U.S. territory. The declaration allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide equipment and resources to help the 50,000 residents recover. <\/p>\n<p>Chris Brandolino, a scientist at New Zealand\u2019s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said flooding and coastal inundation would likely cause as many problems in Tonga as the damage from the winds.<\/p>\n<p>Both Australia and New Zealand are sending humanitarian supplies to Tonga, including emergency shelters, cooking equipment and hygiene kits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)\u2014The Pacific nation of Tonga began cleaning up damage Tuesday from a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":270035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[167,164,50,3016],"class_list":["post-270034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-american-samoa","tag-fiji","tag-power","tag-radio-new-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}