Cyclone Tomas was located about 185 kilometres (115 miles) northeast of the town of Labasa on the northern island of Vanua Levu at 7:00 am (1800 Sunday GMT).

"Fiji has not faced a cyclone this strong lately, and we are not taking this thing lightly," Fiji Disaster Management Office director Pajiliai Dobui told Radio New Zealand.

There were reports of power cuts on Vanua Levu and damage to houses on outlying islands as the cyclone approached.

The category four cyclone, the second most powerful on a five point scale, was estimated to have average winds of 170 kilometres an hour, and was expected to intensify to 205 kilometres an hour over the next 12 to 24 hours, the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) said.

The cyclone was moving south at 11 kilometres an hour and was expected to be centred about 60 kilometres east of Labasa by evening, the FMS said.

The government declared an overnight curfew but this was lifted in most areas Monday morning to allow people to stock up on emergency supplies.

Schools were closed and most public services suspended as the country prepared for strong winds and flooding.

earlier related report
Weather taskforce to warn Haiti of hurricanes
Hamilton, Bermuda (AFP) March 12, 2010 - Caribbean weather experts launched a task force Friday to provide Haiti storm forecasts amid fears the 2010 hurricane season could devastate the country's already fragile infrastructure.

French-speaking meteorologists based in Martinique will provide briefings, while Cuba and Jamaica will be asked to send satellite radar imagery, hurricane experts said at the close of a five-day conference in Bermuda.

Several other countries offered storm tracking and communications equipment as well as personnel to rebuild the quake-ravaged island's forecasting capability.

The January 12 earthquake left at least 220,000 people dead and more than one million homeless, living in tents or makeshift shelters that make them especially vulnerable to even minor storms.

Experts hope to have a weather service in place by April when the rainy season begins.

Ronald Semelfort, director of Haiti's Met Service, said most of the camps that have sprung up across the capital could not resist even 10 millimeters (0.3 inches) of rainfall.

"There are a good many people living in dangerous shelters, in tents -- these people are out in the open. They are extremely vulnerable to wind and rain," he said.

Jean Noel Degrace, of Meteo France, headed up the task force on Haiti at this week's conference. If a hurricane struck the impoverished Caribbean country this year, it would be devastating, he said.

"Two weeks ago, there was flooding from a cold front. It was a very low amount of rain, but 18 or 20 more people were killed. You can only imagine what a hurricane would do," said Degrace.

He said the immediate priority was to provide Haiti with the necessary technology and expertise to predict storms.

"It is really urgent to ensure Haiti gets really good watches and warnings" of storm activity, as well as the ability to run a daily forecasting service with proper facilities and communications, he said.

"We would like to be sure that they are able to access data on observations and forecasts, radar imagery, charts, watches and warnings."

With 80 percent of the population without access to television or radio, communicating forecasts to the public is also a major concern.

Bill Read, head of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said Haiti is "going to have the challenge of warning the people that a storm is coming. We don't know where their infrastructure is going to be by then, so that is up in the air."

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