Hurricane Harold arrived, on Wednesday morning, in Fiji after it wreaked havoc in the Solomon Islands and the Vanuatu Archipelago in the Pacific.

Although the severity of the hurricane receded from the fifth category, the strongest of all, to the fourth category, as it passed off the southern coast of Viti Levu, the main island in the Fiji archipelago, the accompanying winds were very strong, reaching speeds of 240 km / hour, According to the National Weather Service.

The commission warned that the tropical cyclone is taking a path much closer to the island than previously expected, which makes it "very dangerous" and appealed to residents living in unsafe housing to take refuge in churches, schools and other solid buildings.

On passing in Solomon Islands in early April, Harold resulted in 27 deaths.

The hurricane continued its path in the Pacific Ocean, increasing its strength on Monday to the fifth category and hitting Espírito Santo, the largest island in the Vanuatu archipelago. Harold left a great deal of damage in Loganville, the second largest city in the country with a population of 16,500 people, as it destroyed many of its buildings and caused floods.

One of the contacts I contacted in Luganville compared the damage caused by Harold to that caused by the devastating hurricane Pam, which killed 11 people in 2015, said Kendra Gates Deruso, director of the NGO World Vision branch in Vanuatu.

In the aftermath of that devastating hurricane, the international community sent a lot of aid to Vanuatu, but Gates Deruso expressed fear that the same would not happen today because Vanuatu was keeping its borders closed in an attempt to remain one of the few countries in the world that had not reached the Covid-19 epidemic.