Tokelau seeks NZ help after cyclone hits

Tokelau will ask New Zealand for food and medical supplies following Cyclone Percy, which hit the tiny Pacific island group at the weekend, seriously injuring one man.

The northern Cook Islands were also warned to expect winds up to 110km/h, flooding and high seas.

A cyclone warning for Percy on American Samoa's Swains Island has been cancelled but a storm warning is still in place for Swains and the Manua islands.

On Tokelau's Fakaofo atoll, a man was seriously injured when he was cut by flying debris, two people had to be rescued after being washed out to sea and seven houses were washed away.

Fakaofo does not have a doctor.

New Zealand's administrator for Tokelau, Neil Walter, said Percy had now passed through the group.

"For three or four hours you had about a metre of sea water swirling back and forth between the ocean on the one hand and the lagoon on the other," he said from Nukunonu, Tokelau's most populated atoll.

"There's damage to the infrastructure - a lot of areas have been gouged out, the roads have broken up.

"The power system is down, a lot of damage to buildings, a lot of equipment lost, boats scattered all over the island along with debris and building materials and so on," he told National Radio, which reported that Associate Foreign Minister Marian Hobbs had promised help.

Mr Walter said Nukunonu was only 50m to 300m wide and 5m above sea level at its highest level. 

Cyclone Percy is one of four tropical cyclones in the Pacific this month to cause damage, following Meena, Nancy and Olaf.

Tokelau, with a population of about 1400, is a self-administering territory of New Zealand. Its three main atolls of Nukunonu, Atafu and Fakaofo have a total landmass of just 10sq km.

About halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, Tokelau has no airport and is reached by boat from Samoa.

The northern Cook Islands were warned to expect winds gusting to 60 knots, flooding and high seas.

The United States National Weather Service said all residents of Swain's should stay indoors.

The Fiji Meteorological Service website said the cyclone was 160km east of Swains.

Samoa was not expected to feel the worst of Percy but a heavy rain warning was in place there.

- NZPA