Port Villa and Vanuatu’s northern islands are surveying the damage from Tropical Cyclone Judy but the cyclone is threatening southern islands while another storm is forecast to be on its way.
The islands of Erramango and Tanna are expected to be hit hard soon.
Vanuatu’s Metservice says Tafea remains under red alert.
It said early this morning local time the centre of the storm was about 245km south-east of Tanna and 150km south-east of Aneityum.
Destructive Hurricane force winds of 165km/h, gusting to 230km/h, will affect 30 nautical miles from the centre of the system and will continue to affect Tafea province on Thursday.
Heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms are still expected over the northern islands.
An advisory has been issued for a tropical low west of the country, which has a high likelihood of becoming a cyclone.
Fiji’s Metservice has issued a gale warning for tropical depression 09F.
The Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department said the low is currently about 535km west of Torres.
The department said the potential for the tropical low to become a tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours and move towards the Vanuatu islands is high.
There are no reports of deaths or serious injuries in the capital Port Vila from Judy.
A journalist there, Dan McGarry, said the water supply, which was cut off as the system passed over, has since been restored.
McGarry said Port Vila residents prepared well for the storm but it was still quite an experience.
“It was a quite frightening at the time but having had a chance to take a look around town the place it looks a lot better than it did in 2015 for example when Cyclone Pam came through, that was a category five,” he said.
“There’s going to be a very large clean-up required. There are branches and leaves strewn everywhere. But, all in all, there were very few buildings damaged and even most of the larger trees managed to get through intact. And, very thankfully, we have no news of injuries or deaths,” he said.
SOURCE: RNZ PACIFIC/PACNEWS
