Apia, capital of the small South Pacific island nation of Samoa, was badly damaged by an ocean surge and winds gusting to 160 kilometres an hour Thursday as it was ravaged by Tropical Cyclone Evan, dpa cited reports reaching New Zealand as saying. The cyclone toppled trees and power lines and flooded buildings as seas up to 4.5 metres high crashed into the capital, causing widespread damage to Aggie Greys Hotel, one of the most famous establishments in the Pacific, news reports said. Nick Hurley, New Zealand's senior diplomat in Apia, said the extent of the damage was unknown because disaster officials had not been able to venture out to assess it. "But certainly from what I have seen and heard, it has made a huge impact," he told Radio New Zealand. Hurley said the power was out all around Apia, which has about 36,000 residents. There were no immediate reports of casualties among Samoa's near-200,000 population. "A lot of people don't have any water," he said. "The trees have snapped, in a lot of cases have actually come down across roads, crashed onto the houses." "There has been flooding also around Apia, making it very difficult for people to move around," Hurley said. "At Aggies Hotel, there has actually been severe flooding." Earlier, Samoa's Disaster Management Office urged people in Apia's low-lying areas to move to higher ground, and coastal tourist resorts were reportedly evacuated. Samoa was badly damaged in a tsunami that killed 189 people in the South Pacific in 2009.
