The deadly cyclone Harold, which is sweeping the Pacific Ocean, hit Fiji on Wednesday after devastating the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The tropical cyclone weakened from a category 5, the most dangerous of all, to 4, but hit Fiji with winds of up to 240 km / hour, said the national meteorological service, NaDraki. The cyclone was offshore south of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu, passing closer to land than originally planned.
Harlod remains "particularly dangerous," warned the weather service, asking residents to seek refuge in churches, schools and other solid buildings. Harold killed 27 people in the Solomon Islands in early April, before strengthening in a category 5 cyclone, the highest there is, and touching on Monday the island of Espiritu Santo, the largest in the Vanuatu archipelago.
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Luganville, the country's second city with 16,500 inhabitants, was hit hard by the storm that destroyed buildings and caused floods. Kendra Gates Derousseau, Vanuatu director for the NGO World Vision, said one of her contacts in Luganville compared the damage to that of Cyclone Pam, which killed 11 people in 2015.
The international community had largely mobilized to help Vanuatu after Pam's passage. Kendra Gates Derousseau believes it is unlikely that massive aid will flow this year because Vanuatu wants to keep its borders closed, in order to remain one of the few countries in the world where the Covid-19 epidemic has not entered.