Cyclone Yasa levels entire villages, leaves extensive damage in Fiji

Super cyclone Yasa flattened entire villages as it tore through Fiji, with one person reported dead -- a 46-year-old farmer from the Labasa region of Vanua Levu, who died when a wall of his house collapsed on top of him.

Cyclone Yasa, a top category five storm, made landfall over Bua province on the northern island of Vanua Levu on Thursday evening, bringing torrential rain, widespread flooding and winds of up to 285 km per hour (177 miles) across the archipelago.

The storm triggered floods, landslides and blackouts before moving out to sea early Friday, where it rapidly weakened to a Category Three system.

Fiji had on Thursday declared a state of natural disaster, ordered its entire population of nearly 1 million people to seek shelter and implemented a nightly curfew.

The Red Cross said it was scrambling response teams amid "extensive destruction" in Vanua Levu's Bua region and other coastal communities inundated by storm surges.

Aid agencies had pre-positioned supplies across the country in anticipation of major disasters during cyclone season, which runs until May.

Fiji's National Disaster Management Office said there were about 24,500 people sheltering in almost 500 evacuation centres across the country.

Authorities had issued dire warnings about the danger posed by the cyclone for most of the week, urging people to find solid structures or flee to higher ground if they live on the coast.

Authorities remain concerned about heavy rains bought by Cyclone Yasa, though the storm has weakened in strength and is now just a category two as it moves south across the island chain.

Still, the adverse weather has hampered efforts by aid groups to dispatch assistance, with waves of more than 3 metres (10 ft) preventing ships leaving Suva.

Yasa is the third Category Five storm to hit Fiji since 2016, when Cyclone Winston killed 44 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.

The most recent was Cyclone Harold, which claimed 31 lives as it tracked through the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga in April this year.

(with inputs from agencies)