Cyclone Tomas weakens

RNZAF RNZAF RNZAF RNZAF RNZAF RNZAF RNZAF DR ALEX WARNER Dr Alex Warner Dr Alex Warner PACNEWS PACNEWS PACNEWS PACNEWS PACNEWS

FLY OVER: An RNZAF hercules flies over the coastline of Fiji.

FLY OVER: An RNZAF hercules flies over the coastline of Fiji.

FLY OVER: An RNZAF hercules flies over the coastline of Fiji.

AID ARRIVES: Aid arrives in Fiji.

AID ARRIVES: Aid arrives in Fiji.

AID ARRIVES: Aid arrives in Fiji.

AID ARRIVES: Aid arrives in Fiji.

The Daku Resort in Savusavu is buffeted by the cyclone.

Daku Resort, near Savusavu, during the cyclone.

Debris from trees in Savusavu.

Residents boarding up windows ahead of Cylone Tomas.

SECURING VESSELS: Preparing for Cyclone Tomas.

GETTING READY: Retailers protect their businesses ahead of Cyclone Tomas.

DESERTED: Central Suva hunkers down ahead of Cyclone Tomas.

DESERTED: Central Suva hunkers down ahead of Cyclone Tomas.

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South Pacific

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The tropical cyclone that battered parts of Fiji this week, killing one person and forcing thousands out of their homes into shelter, has now been downgraded, the worst of its strength dissipated.

Cyclone Tomas weakened today as it moved southeast, away from Fiji, leaving the island nation to cleanup.

Tonight the housing project Habitat for Humanity appealed for qualified builders to help in reconstruction.

The New Zealand Government has already promised $1 million in disaster relief for Fiji, matching a similar amount donated by Australia.

Pete North, Habitat for Humanity's New Zealand chief executive, noted many houses were destroyed in northern and eastern Fiji and said his group had offered assistance in the rebuilding programme.

Habitat had responded to the rebuilding of Samoa after the earthquake and tsunami in Samoa and was talking with the Cook Islands after the recent cyclone there.

"These Pacific countries are our neighbours and family and we must respond,' Mr North said.

Habitat for Humanity and aid agency Caritas are appealing for funds to aid in post-cyclone reconstruction.

A natural disaster was declared in Fiji on Tuesday after gusts of wind peaking at more than 200kmh and massive storm surges forced 17,000 people out of their homes temporarily.

An RNZAF Hercules carried more emergency supplies to Labasa today, including a Red Cross truck, and then flew reconnaisance flights over northern Vanua Levu.

After an earlier flight, pilot Squadron Leader Kavae Tamariki reported that Fiji's second-largest island sported villages that looked hard hit .

"But other villages looked as if they were untouched," he told a reporter before taking off from Suva, alongside as Australian team on another flight today.

"While we were flying along, surprisingly there weren't a lot of people around," he said.

"Villages looked empty for the most part. I guess they're still holed up in the shelters on the various islands.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said tonight only seven evacuation centres remained open, sheltering about 260 people.

MISSING AUSTRALIANS

Nine Australians remain unaccounted for in the part of Fiji battered by tropical Cyclone Tomas, the Australian High Commission says.

An Australian official will be sent to the South Pacific nation to try to contact the missing Australians, but there was no suggestion any of them had been injured, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Thursday.

"We continue to have no information available to us which would indicate that any Australian has been adversely caught up in the circumstances or the aftermath of the cyclone," he told reporters in Canberra.

- NZPA