Cyclone Tino bore down on Fiji’s second-largest island on Friday, causing warnings of flooding and heavy rain

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

The Fijian government has called for strong action on the climate crisis as the country is hit by its second cyclone in three weeks.

Fiji opened evacuation centres, closed schools and urged businesses to close early as cyclone Tino barrelled towards Fiji’s second-largest island, Vanua Levu, on Friday.

The Fiji meteorological service warned of wind gusts of up to 130km/h (80 mph), heavy rain, coastal flooding and flash flooding in low-lying areas, while police said two people – a man and his young daughter – were missing after trying to swim across a flooded river.

Satyendra Prasad, Fiji’s ambassador to the United Nations, linked the arrival of Tino to the climate crisis, writing on Twitter: “Fiji is counting mode to its 2nd cyclone in 2020 today. It and other ocean states look to the UN in its superyear for nature to finally shift the needle on warming oceans.”

Cyclone Sarai: one dead, thousands evacuated in Fiji Read more

The Fijian prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, who has been an outspoken leader on the climate crisis and was the president of COP23, the UN’s premier climate change body, retweeted Prasad’s tweet. He wrote for the Guardian earlier this month about the need for urgent action to combat the climate crisis as the impacts are felt across the region, including through cyclones in Fiji and bushfires in Australia.

On the outer islands of Fiji, locals prepared to go to emergency shelters while many tourists fled beach resorts and made their way to the capital, Suva, before regional flights and inter-island ferry services were suspended.

Tino is the second cyclone to hit Fiji in less than a month. Tropical cyclone Sarai left two people dead and more than 2,500 needing emergency shelter after making landfall just after Christmas, damaging houses, crops and trees and cutting electricity supplies.

“I’m preparing to go to an evacuation centre soon with my family and wait for the cyclone to pass,” said Nischal Prasad, who lost his home in northern Vanua Legu when Sarai struck.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Fiji meteorological service released a threat map showing the potential path of tropical cyclone Tino on Friday 17 January. Photograph: Fiji Meteorological Service

“Sarai destroyed my house and almost left my family homeless. My daughters had to hide under their bed from the strong winds. It was a scary experience.”

A Russian tourist, Inna Kostromina, 35, said she sought safety in Suva after being told her island resort was in the path of the cyclone.

“We didn’t want to get stuck in there and with the authorities warning of coastal flooding, anything can happen,” she said. “So we decided to move to Suva for now. I think we will be much safer here.”

Police said a man and his daughter, believed to be aged nine or 10, were trying to swim across a flooded river when they were caught in the strong currents.

The incident happened on Thursday before the storm developed into a tropical cyclone, but a police spokesman linked the tragedy to “heavy rain brought about by the current weather system [which] raised the river level”.

Although the Pacific islands are popular tourist destinations in summer it is also the cyclone season.

TCAP4Tuvalu (@TCAPforTu8) Tropical Cyclone Tino, the first cylone in Tuvalu in 2020, now enforce. Storm surges plays on the reclaim land "QE II Park". The reclaim land reduces the risk of waves reaching ashore. Most of the road are blocked by big stones brought by waves ashore pic.twitter.com/Xp2xP16ZMA

The cyclone also caused damage in Tuvalu, a small low-lying island about three hours north of Fiji.

On its present track Tino would hit Tongatapu, the main island of neighbouring Tonga, at the weekend.

Two years ago Tongatapu was hit by cyclone Gina, with two people killed and nearly 200 houses destroyed.