Post #17520 by kahukini on Sun, Dec 29, 2002 11:38 PM

Fate of Pacific islanders unknown after cyclone
Sunday, December 29, 2002 Posted: 10:28 PM EST (0328 GMT)

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Reuters) -- The fate of 1,000 South Pacific islanders on some of the planet's most isolated islands was unknown on Monday, a day after a massive cyclone with winds above 300 km an hour (186 mph) swept over the specks of land.

Cyclone Zoe hit the Solomon Islands' Tikopia, Fataka and Anuta islands on Sunday morning, with the eye of the cyclone sweeping over Tikopia.

Officials in Honiara said on Monday that the islands, some 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of the capital, were so isolated that no reports of damage had yet reached the capital.

Radio communication is the normal means of contact with the islands but it was thought the few radio antennae in the area had been knocked down by cyclonic winds.

A Solomons patrol boat was being refuelled and would set sail for the islands later on Monday to assess the damage, the Australian High Commission said.

Tikopia, Anuta and Fataka islands are volcanic islands in the Santa Cruz group of the sprawling Solomons archipelago.

Tikopia, the biggest of the three, is an oval-shaped island measuring just five km (three miles) at its longest point.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre said Cyclone Zoe, still rated a category four tropical storm, had moved east and now looked like heading between the island nations of Vanuatu and Fiji.