Cyclone blows in and out of Tonga

Tongan residents were on edge last night as Tropical Cyclone Lin brought severe winds and flooding to the kingdom.

A mighty storm - with gusts of up to 150km/h - hit the island nation early on Sunday morning, crashing down powerlines, uprooting trees and flooding properties in the capital Nuku'alofa.

Local restaurant owner and fishing guide Lothar Slabon said:

"It was raining, but nothing special. [Until] around one o'clock, it turned really nasty - raining really, really hard and the winds were just hitting us.

"I lost a quarter of the guttering of my house."

Mr Slabon, who had seen a number of "big-time" cyclones - including Cyclone Heta in 2004 and Cyclone Hina in February - over the 16 years he has lived in Tonga, said they were lucky this time.

"When it hit - wow. It was very loud, very noisy.

"We started putting up shutters on our front windows and putting rocks against the doors. We were preparing ourselves for a big hit."

Yesterday the winds eased as quickly and the cyclone started clearing Tonga and heading into the South Pacific away from land by the afternoon.

WeatherWatch.co.nz head weather analyst Philip Duncan said a cyclone hitting an island directly was rare.

"When you look at the size of the South Pacific then the size of small nations like Tonga, it's quite remarkable when the eye of a cyclone passes over or very nearby land."

Coastal flooding was likely for Fiji in the wake of the cyclone. Mr Duncan said it did not pose a threat to New Zealand.