User:Jason Rees/Val 2

On December 1, the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) started to monitor a tropical disturbance that had developed within the Intertropical Convergence Zone, just to the north of Tokelau.^[1] Over the next couple of days, the disturbance gradually developed as it moved westwards towards Rotuma, before it was classified as a tropical depression by the FMS on December 4, while it was located about 180 km (110 mi) to the southeast of Funafuti in Tuvalu.^[1][2] The system subsquently started to move northeastwards

as it moved north-west towards on December 4.^[3]

The system was then named Val by the FMS during the next day, after it had become a category 1 tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale.^[2][4] During that day the United States Naval Western Oceanography Center (NWOC) designated the system as Tropical Cyclone 06P and started to issue advisories, while Val started to move towards the south-southeast, after the upper level north-westerly steering winds increased.^[4][5] During December 6, the NWOC reported that the system had become equivalent to a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale as Val continued to steadily intensify and moved south-eastwards, away from Tuvalu and towards the Samoan Islands.^[6][2] Early on December 7, the FMS reported that the system had become a category 3 severe tropical cyclone, as it started to be steered southwards by upper-level northerlies.^[6][2]

Later that day, the FMS reported that Val had reached its peak 10-minute sustained wind speeds of about 165 km/h (105 mph), which made it a category 4 severe tropical cyclone on the Australian scale.^[6][2] The system subsequently made landfall on the Samoan island of Savaii at around 1800 UTC (07:00 SST), while the NWOC reported that the cyclone had peaked with 1-minute sustained wind speeds of about 230 km/h (145 mph), which made it equivalent to a category 4 hurricane on the SSHWS.^{[4][2][nb 1]} After Val had passed over the island, weakening upper-level winds caused the system to slow down before it made a sharp clockwise loop which almost brought it over Savaii for a second time.^[4][3] During December 9, Val completed its loop and started to move eastwards and gradually weaken, before it passed over the American Samoan island of Tutuila early the next day.^[3][9] After passing over American Samoa, Val appeared to threaten the Southern Cook Islands and was expected to pass close to Palmerston Island.^[6] However, as the system continued to weaken, it started to move more towards the south-southeast then had been expected, which spared the Cook Islands.^[6] During December 12, the FMS reported that Val had weakened into a category two tropical cyclone and passed the primary warning responsibility for the system to the New Zealand Meteorological Service (NZMS) after Val had moved out of its area of responsibility.^[6] Shortly after moving into the NZMS's area of responsibility, Val transitioned into a strong extratropical depression.^[3][9] Storm force winds subsequently persisted around the centre of Val's extratropical remnants for the next 3 days, before the system was captured and sheared apart by strong environmental westerlies associated with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current as it approached 50°S.^[3]

At around 14:00 UTC (03:00 UTC-11) on December 5, the FMS issued a Tropical Cyclone Alert for Tokelau a New Zealand dependency, before the FMS upgraded the alert to a gale warning at 02:00 UTC on December 6 (15:00 UTC-11, December 5).^[6] Gale force winds were subsequently experienced on the island nation as Val passed about 370 km (230 mi) to the southwest of the island nation, before the warning was cancelled at 20:00 UTC (09:00 UTC-11).^[6] Over the next few days, squally weather was subsequently recorded over the islands, while waves associated with the cyclone caused significant damage and eroded land that was not protected by seawalls.^[10] As a result, the island nation was declared to be a disaster area, however, the damage was not believed to be as serious as Ofa had been 18 months earlier.^[10][11]

• Gale warning cancelled at 2000 UTC on December 6.^[6]
• Squally weather experienced for a few days afterwards.^[6]
• Cyclone Val significantly impacted Tokelau.^[11]
• Sea walls and storage sheds damaged.^[11]
• The damage was believed not to be as significant as Cyclone Ofa.^[11]
• The island nation was declared to be a disaster area as a result of Cyclone Val.^[10]
• Val was estimated to have caused WS$724,800, US$750,000 worth of damage.^[10][12]
• The main damage on the atolls was caused by waves which eroded land that was not protected by seawalls.^[10]
• On two of the atolls seawalls were damaged.^[10]
• Salt water on the land destroyed crops which hadn't fully recovered after Ofa.^[10]
• The atoll of Atafu had the most amount of physical damage where 30% of the houses were damaged while all shorefront cooking places were destroyed.^[10]
• The amount of coastal erosion exceeded the amount caused by Ofa.^[10]
• The islanders had no kerosene, petrol or diesel.^[10]
• The islanders faced problems getting fresh wholesome food for the next 15 months.^[10]
• The damage to Tokelau could not be assessed from the air.^[10]
• Val damaged and destroyed several seawalls that had been partially constructed after Cyclone Ofa.^[12]
• Ahead of Val, the seawalls were in various stages of were in various stages of construction.^[13]
• The United Nations Development Programme subsequently funded a project between 1992 and 1995, which provided a limited reconstruction of the areas damaged by the cyclone.^[12]

On December 6, the FMS decided to issue a gale warning for Wallis, as they thought that Val would threaten the island; however, the warning was cancelled later that day as the system moved away from the island.^[6] No gale-force winds were reported in the French Territory, while flooding of coastal areas, fallen trees and some minor damage was reported on the island.^[6]

On December 6, the FMS issued a gale warning for the Tongan islands of Niuafoʻou and Niuatoputapu, as it was thought that Val could cause gale-force or stronger winds on the two islands.^[6] This warning was cancelled the next day as Val was moving away from the islands; however, these warnings were reissued during December 8, after the system had passed over Savaii in Samoa and started to move south-westwards.^[6] During December 9, gale and storm-force winds were experienced on Niuatoputapu; however, no gales were reported in Niuafoou.^[6]

On December 6, the FMS placed Western Samoa under a gale warning after it had become apparent that Val would impact the island nation, before they issued storm and hurricane warnings as the system moved closer to the archipelago.^[6][14] During that day, northeasterly winds and high seas caused damage to coastal areas on both Savaii and Upolu, before the weather stations at Apia and Faleolo started to report that gale force winds were occurring during December 7.^[6][15] In a radio broadcast ahead of Val making landfall, the then Samoan Prime Minster: Tofilau Eti Alesana prayed for the country to be spared the worst of Val, but also urged Samoan's to accept the storm as God's will.^[16] The system made landfall on the island of Savaii at about 18:00 UTC (07:00 SST) on December 7, where hurricane-force winds of up to 165 km/h (105 mph) and wind-gusts of up to 240 km/h (150 mph) were thought to have occurred.^[6][17] After the system had made landfall, Val started to move south-westwards and away from Western Samoa, which prompted the FMS to forecast that winds over the islands would decrease over the islands during December 9.^[6][14] This had the impact of causing Samoan's to drop their guard, start clearing up, repairing houses and going about their day to day business, however, during that day the system completed a cyclonic loop just to the southwest of Savaii, which almost brought Val over the island for a second time.^[4][14] After completing the cyclonic loop, Val moved eastwards and passed about 20 km (10 mi) to the south of Upolu during December 9, before it moved south-eastwards away from the Samoan Islands during December 10, after it had made landfall on Tutuila in American Samoa.^[6][2]

Val's impact on Western Samoa was considered to have been significantly more severe than Cyclone Ofa's impact 18 months earlier, which had been considered to be the worst tropical cyclone to impact the island nation since the 1889 Apia cyclone.^{[14][citation needed]} The system was estimated to have caused over $280 million in damage, while it was responsible for 13 deaths and the births of

Overall Val was estimated to have been responsible for over $280 million and 13 deaths in Western Samoa, with over 95% of the houses either damaged or destroyed and severe crop damage reported.

The Government of Western Samoa

On December 6, the FMS placed American Samoa under a gale warning as it had become apparent that the system would impact the American territory, before the warning was upgraded to a hurricane warning the following day as Val moved closer to the archipelago.^[6] On December 8, the FMS downgraded the warning to a gale warning as the threat of Val passing near the territory decreased since the system had started to move southwards and now directly threatened the Samoan island of Savaii.^[6] After Val had passed over Savaii and performed a clockwise loop, the FMS realised that the system would move eastwards and pass over American Samoa, which caused them to reissue the hurricane warning.^[6] Ahead of the system making landfall on American Samoa, FEMA, US Corps Army of Engineers and the United States Red Cross were all placed on standby to fly to Pago Pago as soon as the airport reopened.^[18]

Val made landfall on the island of Tutuila at around 02:00 UTC on December 10 (15:00 SST, December 9), where hurricane-force winds were recorded.^[6]

As Val moved south-eastwards on December 10, the FMS predicted that Val would pass near Palmerston Island in the Southern Cook Islands and issued a gale warning for the island, as well as a tropical cyclone alert for the rest of the Southern Cook Islands.^[6] During the following day, the system passed around 370 km (230 mi) to the west of Palmerston, where gale and storm force winds were reported, while Val was estimated to have caused gale-force winds on Pukapuka in the Northern Cook Islands.^[6] The FMS also issued a gale warning for Rarotonga and Mangaia during December 11, however, only strong winds were reported on these two islands as Val passed around 465 km (290 mi) to the south-west of Rarotonga.^[6] It was later estimated that the system had caused around NZ$1 million (US$543,500) worth of damage to crops and infrastructure, while the Cook Islands Government asked for money to fund various repairs to its sea wall.^[19]

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