Homes destroyed as Fiji feels Evan's fury

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Sorry, this video has expired Video: Evan leaves devastation across tourist hub Nadi (ABC News)

Cyclone Evan has left a trail of destruction after smashing into Fiji, destroying homes and lashing the Pacific nation with strong winds and heavy rain.

Thousands fled to emergency evacuation centres as the storm - the strongest to hit the nation in 20 years - cut power and caused flooding.

Homes were simply blown to pieces and possessions lay scattered in the rain.

Trees had their branches snapped and foliage was shredded as the gusts surged to 150 kilometres per hour.

In the eye of the 480-kilometre-wide storm, which hit the nearby Yasawa islands on Monday, there were wind gusts of 270 kilometres per an hour.

Suva-based meteorologist, Neville Koop, says thousands of people who were evacuated to emergency shelters overnight are staying put.

"A lot of the evacuation centres were open very early in the north of the country and in the west, and in the central division," he said.

"The experiences of Cyclone Evan over Samoa has given people a very vivid picture of what the potential was of damage for this system.

"So it looks as though many people took advantage of that opportunity to seek shelter early."

Australian tourist Kylie Walker was stuck in her hotel room with her two children waiting for the cyclone to pass.

"The wind has been intensifying over the last four or five hours. It started off a breeze [on Monday] morning and it's now a full gale force," she said late yesterday.

"It's bending the coconut trees over and whipping their fronds off.

"It's ripping the coconuts too and there's a lot of debris floating around outside."

Ms Walker tried to leave a few days ago when she realised the cyclone was heading for Fiji but was unable to get a flight.

She said while she was safe inside the hotel, she worried about locals who were out and about.

"The water is starting accumulate on the ground and it's started to flood a bit. We've stopped up the doors and windows with towels and pillows but it is starting to seep in under the doors now," she said.

"There's rain whipping by at a great speed and it looks like the wind's still starting to get stronger."

The ABC's Matt Wordsworth was at an evacuation centre in Nadi:

It is still passing by. It is a very large system and it will retain its category four intensity for the whole four hours that it is taking to get from one side of the - the northern side and then leaving out the south-western side. It is still packing a lot of winds here in Nadi and we had a little bit of a drive around on the way from the evacuation centre to where we are staying here this evening. There is widespread damage, trees are down, you can see corrugated iron littering the sides of the roads, power lines are down and phone lines are down. Communication is very difficult, moving around is very difficult. There will be a lot of work that needs to be done before Nadi can start to recover. Also hearing early reports out of... Plantation island and the Yasawa Islands that we mentioned earlier, they copped the brunt of this and it sounds like there will be a lot of damage from speaking to some of the locals. ABC reporter Matt Wordsworth

Earlier on Monday, Fiji Meteorological Service forecaster Sanjay Prakesh said conditions across the country are worsening.

"The north-eastern part is already experiencing the effect of the cyclone," he said.

"It will get progressively worse overnight and the whole of Vanua Levu will be experiencing heavy rain with gale winds."

All flights have been cancelled out of Fiji but the international airport at Nadi is packed with people who have been evacuated from luxury resorts on outlying islands.

Gordon Leewar, who manages a resort in northern Fiji, says his guests have decided to stay and wait for the cyclone to pass.

"We have five couples on our property at the moment and they're really happy to stay, we've asked them whether they want to be evacuated but they've said 'no, we want to stay and we hope for the best'," he said.

Residents had been urged to stock up on food and emergency supplies, while Fiji's interim prime minister Frank Bainimarama warned that "every Fijian would be affected".

"I cannot stress enough how serious this is," he said.

The Australian Government has offered to help Fiji to support search and rescue in the wake of the cyclone.

Meanwhile, Samoa is still assessing the damage after Evan passed over there last week, killing at least four people and leaving at least 10 others missing.

There are predictions the damage could be as severe as the tsunami in 2009.

The Federal Government has sent emergency personnel to help authorities with the recovery of the storm.

Topics: cyclone, weather, cyclones, disasters-and-accidents, fiji

First posted