Category 4 cyclone hits Tonga

Tonga: Cyclone Ian now at Vava'u

Tropical Cyclone Ian is hitting Tonga's northern island group of Vava'u with winds of 195km per hour.

RadioNZ,

10 January, 2014

The storm was upgraded to category five earlier on Saturday, but the Fiji Meteorological Service says it has lost some strength in the past hour and was downgraded to category four.

The Tongan meteorological service is now predicting gusts of 268km per hour compared with the 290km/hr forecast earlier. Disaster agencies are on standby.

The ABC reports many people there are still living in small shelters set up after the last major cyclone.

Resort owners on Vava'u say they are bracing for the cyclone but have not yet experienced anything worse than very strong winds.

The cyclone has been slow to make landfall since it developed. Ian has been hovering between Fiji and Tonga since Monday.

The ABC reports a state of emergency has been declared for the northern islands. Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, is not directly in Ian's path.

No request for help yet

The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade says Tonga has not requested any official assistance as yet.

But the ministry said on Saturday that could change at anytime and it was monitoring the situation.

UNICEF is on stand-by in New Zealand to send supplies and personnel as soon as it's safe to do so.

Chief executive Dennis McKinlay said UNICEF has pre-positioned supplies in Suva, Fiji, including water purification equipment and make-shift shelters.