Cyclone Winston hits Fiji's main island Viti Levu

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Cyclone Winston hits Fiji's main island Viti Levu

20 February 2016 Asia

The most powerful storm to hit Fiji has made landfall on the Pacific nation's main island, Viti Levu.

Cyclone Winston brought winds of over 320 kph (200 mph), torrential rain and waves of up to 12m (40ft).

Flights have been cancelled, evacuation centres activated and a nationwide curfew put in place.

The category five storm - the highest level - is expected to move westwards over the main island overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning.

Before it landed, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama warned that Fiji was facing "an ordeal of the most grievous kind".

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35620649

[think]

1. Hoping people got evacuated. That's one monster of a storm...

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Hard to imagine a good evacuation zone...

Most of the population lives near the coast.

The largest island, Viti Levu (pronounced Vee-tee Lay-vu) is home to 70% of the population (about 600,000) and is the hub of the entire archipelago. It measures 146 kilometers long and 106 kilometers wide and has an area of 10,389 square kilometers. In the realm of Pacific islands, it is exceeded in size only by New Caledonia and the Big Island of Hawaii.

http://fijiguide.com/page/viti-levu

The yellow-ish areas are where most people live, in river basins.

http://api.ning.com/files/McLOeOsoOD8VbxI5laiqSfUtWaLB9mX2R*TWuOd8EQk_/vitilevum.jpg