By ALISON ANIS
AT LEAST 30 houses including food gardens have reportedly been washed away at Rabaraba Island in the Milne Bay province due to heavy flooding while Kiriwina islanders have reported power outages from broken power lines caused by falling trees from strong winds.
The Milne Bay provincial disaster office expects to receive similar reports from Fergusson, Woodlark and Misima islands including other small islands in the province, Provincial disaster officer, Eric Balaria said yesterday.
Mr Balaria went on air through radio Milne Bay yesterday afternoon and issued strong warning on tropical cyclone and flooding for outer Milne Bay islanders.
He said a depression occurred on Monday and caused low pressure system to build over Milne Bay province.
“That depression headed south west into Coral Sea and developed into a tropical cyclone 192km out of Port Moresby and Cairns,” Mr Balaria added.
He said he feared the cyclone might change its course to south-east and head back to Milne Bay.
Reports from the national weather officer in Port Moresby also confirmed a tropical cyclone was detected at 1pm yesterday 120km south of Port Moresby travelling westward toward Australia.
Senior forecaster for the National Weather Office Maiwori Kwekwena said it was travelling parallel to the coastline and heading toward Cape York peninsula.
“But we cannot rule out the possibility that this may change cause as tropical cyclones are unpredictable.”
Mr Balaria confirmed that he had received reports from other Milne Bay islanders reporting unusual rise and fall in sea level and added this has caused fear of a tsunami.