Tomas and Ului Pose Double Threat

The weather gods are extraordinarily active in the South Pacific this week, with major cyclones Tomas (a category 4) and Ului (a category 5) simultaneously battering different island groups. As a point of reference, both storms are stronger than Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

With power currently out in most of the Fijian islands, damage reports and death tolls are still sketchy, but as the storm came ashore last night in the northeastern islands, sources in New Zealand reported gusts as high 168 mph (146 knots) and storm-driven waves as high as 25 feet. More than 5,000 residents of the northern islands evacuated their homes, at least one woman drowned while trying to save others, and some boats have reportedly been driven far inland. Although the storm is expected to cause continued damage for the next 12 to 18 hours, storm-watchers are hopeful that most of the largest and most populus islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, will escape catastrophic damage. Nadi Tropical Cyclone Center expected the eye of the storm to pass roughly 125 miles east of the capital, Suva.

Meanwhile Cyclone Ului is currently south of the Solomon Islands traveling SSW towards the Queensland, Australia coast at about four knots. A recent report pegged its sustained winds at 130 knots, with gusts into the 160s.