| Tuvalu News |
PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT
Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
PHONE SERVICES TO TUVALU CUT BECAUSE OF FLOODING
FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu (February 21, 2000 – Radio Australia)---International
telephone and other telecommunications services to Tuvalu have been cut and are
expected to be out of order until the end of the month because of flooding.
Tuvalu's weather bureau earlier predicted unusually high spring tides for this
past weekend of 3.2 meters (10.56 feet), saying it would result in the flooding
of most of the capital area and many outlying islands.
Meteorologist Hillia VaVae accurately predicted that the Telecom office, the
country’s only international airport and the weather office all would be
partially flooded.
She said the country has been experiencing high spring tides more and more often
ever since the 1980s, apparently as the result of the warming of the earth and
rising sea levels.
Most communications with the tiny country of about 10,000, located between Fiji
and Kiribati, have been cut off since the flooding occurred Saturday.