Tropical cyclone mick at 10:30 utc on 14 december 2009
Tropical Cyclone Mick is now a category 1 storm. The centre was located at 11am FJT (12 hours ahead of GMT) about 110km North North-West of Nadi. The cyclone was moving South East at a rate of around 15-20 km p/h.
The cyclone is thought to be now past its peak and will be over North Western Viti Levu right now.
According to the Fiji Meteorological Service, the cyclone should maintain its southeast track overnight and tomorrow thus affecting nearly all parts of the Fiji Group. Rain has picked up dramatically in the Western division and should spread to other parts of the country overnight and tomorrow morning.
Based on the projected track of Tropical Cyclone Mick and the extent of damaging gale force winds, the whole of Fiji is to be kept under a Tropical Cyclone WARNING overnight and tomorrow.
About 18 hours ago the Fijian government also released all non-essential staff:
Following advice from the National Emergency Operation Centre, the Public Service Commission informs all Ministries/Departments that Tropical Cyclone Mick with its current track will directly hit Fiji by midday today.
In view of the above advice by the DISMAC, it has now been decided that all Public Servants that are not part of the Disaster Management Coordination Operation Team and those not in the essential services are to be released with immediate effect.
Fijian Government
In This Story: Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone is a large scale air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure. Cyclones are characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate about a zone of low pressure and typically bring winds, rain, high waves and storm surges to the areas they pass.
In the Atlantic and the northeastern Pacific oceans, a tropical cyclone is generally referred to as a hurricane (from the name of the ancient Central American deity of wind, Huracan), in the Indian and south Pacific oceans it is called a cyclone, and in the northwestern Pacific it is called a typhoon.
Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island is Ono-i-Lau. 87% of the total population of 883,483 live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.
Humans have lived in Fiji since the second millennium BC—first Austronesians and later Melanesians, with some Polynesian influences. A military government declared a Republic in 1987 following a series of coups d’état.
Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific through its abundant forest, mineral, and fish resources. The currency is the Fijian dollar, with the main sources of foreign exchange being the tourist industry, remittances from Fijians working abroad, bottled water exports, and sugar cane.
