The worst of the cyclone that battered the Pacific island state of Samoa overnight, killing at least three people, appeared to be over and it was not expected to hit the devastated capital, Apia, again, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Friday.
McCully told reporters in Wellington that earlier forecasts that Tropical Cyclone Evan - which brought widespread flooding, destroyed houses and crops, and blocked roads with trees and toppled power poles - was poised to reverse direction and strike a second time had been rescinded.
"The good news at the moment is that the best guess is we're not going to see the cyclone return to Samoa," he said. "I spoke to the New Zealand High Commissioner Nick Hurley a few minutes ago, and that's the reading they have on the ground there." A state of disaster in the country of nearly 200,000 people was declared after Evan swept in from the Pacific and hit Apia on the main island Upolu Thursday.
At least two children were among the three who were reportedly drowned when the Vaisigano River, which runs through the centre of Apia, burst its banks. Hurley told Radio New Zealand that police said a number of people were missing and the death toll could rise. Bridges were damaged, cars washed away and 400 people were evacuated from their homes on the river banks. Scores of tourists were reportedly evacuated from coastal resorts to higher ground.
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