Category 5 Cyclone Gita

Cyclone Gita blew in about 7 PM with strong winds. It came on quickly. We went across the street to our Family Home Evening. An hour later we walked home with severe winds, struggling against the wind and sloshing through puddles. Several of the senior couples (about half of them) decided to spend the night at the Service Center, thinking it would be safer than in our little apartments. We chose to sleep in our bed. Well, try to sleep.  

We pushed all the furniture away from the walls and got everything off the floor. There was no where to sit now, so off to bed we went. The winds became more and more fierce. We could hear all sorts of banging and what sounded like roofs being torn off (roofs are corrugated steel). About midnight, we peeked out the window, and my oh my the coconut tree fronds were flying through the sky! The yard was already full of tree debris. Water was on the floor - the rain was seeping through the louvered windows. I laid down as many towels as I could find. In the morning, we rung out the towels and filled 2 BIG buckets with the water.

In the morning, I opened the front door. WOW. I was amazed. The tree in front of our house had lost over half its branches. Our front lawn was deep with these branches. Coconut tree fronds covered the campus lawn.  Coconut trees were laying on several roofs as well. Monte and a young man he was working with cut these down with chain saw.

Busby's house, 3 away from us

Our front lawn

We went for a walk around campus. One house had the entire roof blown off. The occupants fled to the library at Liahona High School for safety. The roof also was torn off the computer lab; thus the computers will be ruined as they were rained on heavily. Roof was blown off FM building and other areas as well.

Liahona High School Computer Lab Building

We had no water, but we did have electricity because of the generator on campus. I now began the task of cleaning our house and lawn. Monte was at the emergency container making sure the chain saws worked. We had a meeting with the Stake Presidents and Elder Tukuafu (area 70) to discuss the situation. After the meeting, most of the Stake Presidents met us at the emergency container where we dispensed mostly chain saws with gas and oil, and tarps. All our chain saws are in action, and nearly 300 tarps handed out to be used to cover roofs, etc.

Driving down a main road near Kahoua

Brother Faka'osilea Kaufusi, our country welfare manager, who we work closely with, did not have enough gas to get home to Navutoka (east side of Tongatapu). He asked if we would drive him home. It is about an hour each way. We saw much destruction. The roads were barely open, after trees had been cut.

Power lines are down all over the island. Power poles have either snapped or blown over. The electricity was shut off ahead of the cyclone so no fires started from downed lines. It will be weeks before power is restored everywhere.

Many homes were damaged, mostly roofs blown
off.

                                                                             
           

On one home, the roof was intact, but the rest of the house collapsed so what remained was only the roof on the ground!

I hope that family was staying at a shelter and not in this home during the night.




We also stopped at our office in Maufunga. The skylight had been broken, and there was water everywhere. The window behind my desk had been broken, and water got onto my laptop computer. We brought it home to see if we could get it dry and hopefully still run. We also brought home files that had been on the desk that were wet.

Tidbits from the internet:

The storm hit the island with destructive sustained winds of around 243 kilometers per hour (151 miles per hour), damaging about 40 percent of the buildings in the capital.

Officials described Cyclone Gita as the most powerful storm to ever hit Tongatapu after it passed through shortly after midnight.

"They have been through cyclones before, but this is the biggest cyclone this island has had for at least 60 odd years," quote from NEMO, National Emergency Management Office.