CyclOWNED!
-UNNY how these things go. One day you're frantically preparing for a cyclone, and the next day there's a cyclone bearing down on the island. Seems like just yesterday I was vaguely aware that this cyclone was headed this way.
By the way, if you look at the center of that image of the approaching Cyclone Rene really closely, you can see the red outlines of the two bigger Samoan islands, which gives you an idea of scale. See them, just to the left of the main part of the storm? Aren't they cute?
You can also watch an animated weather map of it here. Assuming both that you have a halfway-decent Web connection and are not reading the archived version of this post in the distant future.
It's a "cyclone" here, not a "hurricane," even though they're really about the same thing. It's mostly being rated on the Fijian version of the cyclone scale. Currently, from the best source I can find (a bunch of weather geeks posting updates to a forum I found on Google) it's currently a Category 2 Tropical Cyclone, which would be a Category 1 hurricane on the superior American system, with winds of about 65 MPH.
Also, since it's in the Southern Hemisphere, it's going to be rotating in the opposite direction. A "reverse hurricane," if you will. Therefore, it should be building up everything in its path instead of destroying it. That's how a lot of people I've talked to are reacting, anyhow.
