EXPECT more rain from Tropical Cyclone Gita, says Fiji Meteorological Service director Ravind Kumar.
In a media briefing at 4pm in Nadi yesterday, he said TC Gita had passed Ono-i-Lau and would continue to move westwards before moving away from the group.
“It may continue to maintain a Category 4 system for quite a bit over the next 24 (from 2pm yesterday) to 48 hours before it may start to gradually weaken,” he said.
“We will probably see how things unfold around Thursday or Friday when the cyclone moves out of Fiji waters.”
In its special weather bulletin at 3.15pm yesterday, a hurricane warning remained in force for Ono-i-Lau and Vatoa.
A storm warning remained in force for the rest of Southern Lau Group and a gale warning remained in force for Matuku, Totoya, Moala, Kadavu and nearby smaller islands, Lakeba and Nayau.
TC Gita was located 60km South-southwest of Ono-i-Lau and 390km Southeast of Kadavu at 2pm travelling at 25km per hour.
Mr Kumar said on its projected path, TC Gita was located 300km Southeast of Kadavu at 8pm and then at 250km Southeast of Kadavu at 2am today.
“The strongest winds that we got were 68knots and the gusts that we got were 84knots.
“On its current path, we don’t see it hitting landfall in any of our inhabited islands.”
Meanwhile, the Fiji Met had taken over the issuing of special weather bulletins from their Tongan counterparts.
“From 7pm (Monday), the Tongan Met office called us saying that their communication lines were down and they had requested that we take over their special weather bulletins and since then we have been issuing the special weather bulletins for Tonga.
“At the moment, their communications are not back online so we will continue to do so until such a time when they are back online.”
In a statement last night, the Government said it stood ready to assist communities with immediate assistance and long-term recovery.
