"We have received preliminary unconfirmed reports of extensive damage in the Lau group," Fiji's National Disaster Management Office operations officer Anthony Blake told AFP.

"We have got reports of at least two villages totally destroyed," he said.

There have been no confirmed reports of deaths from Lau and residents of at least one of the destroyed villages were able to shelter in caves, Blake said.

"We are hoping there is no loss of life and all the villagers are okay and we will get emergency supplies to them."

According to "our estimates based on the worst-case scenarios of the track of the cyclone and what has happened in the north, we suspect at least 50 percent of the Lau group has been severely damaged."

The Lau group, a string of islands running north to south along Fiji's eastern edge, is home to about 11,000 people who were close to the centre of the category four cyclone.

Cyclone Tomas devastated swathes of the north and east of Fiji as it passed over the islands on Monday and Tuesday.

The west of the second largest island Vanua Levu and the entire main island of Viti Levu were spared the worst of the cyclone, with average wind speeds of 175 kilometres (109 miles) an hour and huge waves caused by storm surges.

Blake said the scale of the destruction and any further casualties would become clearer Thursday as the results of the first surveys were received.

Only one death has so far been confirmed -- a woman who drowned in rough seas as the cyclone approached at the weekend -- but another emergency official said Tuesday there had been unconfirmed reports of "a few" deaths.

By Wednesday, fewer than 9,000 people remained in evacuation centres throughout the country, down from around 17,000 on Tuesday, Blake said.

earlier related report
Resort islands evacuated as cyclone bears down on Australia
Sydney (AFP) March 17, 2010 - Hundreds of people started evacuating resort islands off Australia's popular east coast Wednesday as officials braced for a powerful cyclone packing winds of up to 168 kilometres (104 miles) an hour.

About 300 people were being ferried from the Great Barrier Reef islands of Heron and Lady Elliott, north of Brisbane, with Tropical Cyclone Ului about 1,200 kilometres offshore and likely to make landfall on Saturday or Sunday.

"Cyclones by their very nature are very unpredictable weather patterns," Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh warned.

Cyclone Ului, which has already brought strong winds and rough seas to the Queensland coast, was moving slowly but heading towards the mainland and was likely to hit between the towns of Bowen and Gladstone.

"Most of the models are showing that it will come towards the Queensland coast and weaken," a spokesman for the Bureau of Meteorology told AFP.

"But what intensity it will have is difficult to say."

Conditions would worsen as the cyclone, currently at the second highest level of category four, approached, he said.

"It is not a weak system, at this stage it is a very severe tropical cyclone and it has brought 90-knot winds close to the centre," he said.

Residents along the Queensland coast have been urged to prepare for the cyclone by stocking up on non-perishable foods, water and medication.

"At this stage we are not certain of where the cyclone may impact if it does hit, which makes it vitally important that everyone is prepared for the possibility of impact," regional director Robbie Medlin said.

The cyclone follows heavy rains and flooding in Queensland.

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