A tropical depression hanging over Vanuatu was beginning to gain momentum and was forecast to build into a cyclone within the next 24 to 48 hours.
Vanuatu-based journalist Dan McGarry in Port Vila said the capital was battening down the hatches and resembled a ghost town.
Port Vila inter-island wharf Photo: RNZ Pacific / Heather Maraki
"Just not dangerous, just really ugly, the whole town is pretty much in shutdown. We are seeing winds that are quite disruptive; the water is getting everywhere but they [the winds] are not so strong that we are not getting a lot of flying debris which is a real relief.
"There was a few things banging on through the night when the winds were quite strong," he said.
However, the Shepherd Group of Islands, in the province of Shefa was starting to experience dangerous winds as the tropical depression was beginning to set in this afternoon.
"The area just north of the capital like in the Shepherd Group of Islands it is quite dangerous now, winds are at 40 knots or 90km/hr so I wouldn't want to be on the ocean at this rate," he said.
He said the Fiji Metrological Service was the first of the met services in the Pacific region to forecast a cyclone in the next day or two.