Tonga in South Pacific lashed by powerful cyclone

Tonga — The Pacific Ocean nation of Tonga was lashed by a strong cyclone on Sat, destroying homes and splitting roofs from churches and different public buildings within the inhabited northern islands. there have been no immediate reports of injuries.
A state of emergency was declared for 2 of Tonga's 3 island teams, Vava'u and Ha'apai, on Sat morning as category-five storm Cyclone Ian brought serious rain and robust winds forecast to current of air at up to 287 kilometers (178 miles) per hour.
The storm was later downgraded from the highest of the size of damaging cyclones to class four, with gusts of up to 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph).
The main island of Tongatapu within the south seems to possess avoided the worst of the storm.
Tonga's Director of Emergencies Leveni Aho aforesaid harm to homes, churches and different public buildings was reported on Lifuka island within the central Ha'apai cluster and Hunga island within the Vava'u cluster to the north.

The extent of the harm was still being assessed, however the destruction gave the impression to be less in depth than Tongans had feared from the primary category-five storm that they had seasoned in decades.
"The lucky half ... is that though it's terribly extremely dangerous, the attention was therefore slim, the extent of the harm isn't what you associate commonly with a category-five cyclone," Aho said. He calculable the storm's eye was but sixty kms (35 miles) across.
He aforesaid there have been no immediate reports of deaths, injuries or missing persons.
While churches had been ready as standby evacuation centers, Aho aforesaid he wasn't attentive to individuals feat their homes in massive numbers.
Aho suggested against travel between Tongan islands throughout the storm and urged residents of outer islands to remain place.
Tonga is associate ground of 176 islands, thirty six of that area unit populous by quite a hundred,000 people.