Pat packs a punch in Aitutaki

Cyclone Pat a category three cyclone and the third to affect Cook Islands territory this season walloped Aitutaki when it hit at 2am Wednesday morning.
At a media briefing at Police HQ at 8.30am on Wednesday morning, Police Commissioner Maara Tetava reported that 80-90 per cent of houses on the northern, beach side of the island suffered roof damage. He said it was chaos. The extent of damage on the southern side was not known.
The Commissioner said luckily there was no storm surge and the airport was undamaged although power was down. In fact power was down from Akitua to the airport. He said Air Raro would send a plane when it was safe to do so. There had been some roof damage at the hospital and some windows were blown in. Luckily the hospital was still operational and only one casualty was reported-a woman whose foot was cut by glass.
The Commissioner reported there was a lot of debris on the roads and clearance was a priority. Power lines were down in places. The tourist resorts were ok-no damage reported. He said communication with Aitutaki police went down at 2am but they had phone contact with others like the Mayor.
As soon as the weather clears, the Commissioner said he wants a plane to do a fly over of Aitutaki to assess the damage. The patrol boat Te Kukupa was on standby if needed.
Wind speed was still reported at over 100kph.
There were about 1,700 people on Aitutaki at the time and just under 100 tourists. The tourists were evacuated to the LDS Church in the centre of the island.
Following the media briefing the Emergency Management Team was to brief the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the PM would be considering declaring a state of disaster in Aitutaki and possibly a state of emergency for Rarotonga where the cyclone was now expected to pass nearby at 2pm Wednesday afternoon. The Met Office was expecting Cyclone Pat to pass Rarotonga between 40-80 miles to the West.