![\"Image](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/E718\/production\/_100006195_hi044739566.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe parliament building in the Pacific country of Tonga has been destroyed by the worst storm to hit the country in more than 60 years.<\/p>\n
Cyclone Gita, a category four storm, battered the island overnight and caused widespread damage.<\/p>\n
Electricity lines were downed and roofs were torn off houses by the high winds.<\/p>\n
The government declared a state of emergency before the storm hit, and set up evacuation centres where thousands of people stayed overnight.<\/p>\n
“The wind was terrifying. It was roaring overhead. We could hear roofs being lifted,” witness Mary Fonua told Radio New Zealand.<\/p>\n
“I could see the people across the road, their roof was flapping around the house, it was trying to disintegrate. I think a lot of people were very desperate last night.”<\/p>\n
The UK Met Office said the storm – which brought winds of more than 200km\/h (124mph) – was the strongest to hit the main islands of Tonga since modern records began.<\/p>\n
Tonga is made up of more than 170 islands, and is located in the Pacific Ocean east of Fiji and north of New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Tonga’s parliament building is more than 100 years old. It is not yet clear where MPs will sit while it is being repaired.<\/p>\n
One MP, Lord Fusitu’a, told ABC News that the damage was “a great disappointment”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Successive legislatures over the years have suggested building a new parliament house and I guess that’ll be a necessity now,” he said.<\/p>\n
Gita is expected to intensify into a category five storm – the highest level – on Tuesday as it moves towards Fiji.<\/p>\n
But experts predict it will miss the country’s most densely populated areas.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The parliament building in the Pacific country of Tonga has been destroyed by the worst storm to hit the country in more than 60 years. Cyclone Gita, a category four storm, battered the island overnight and caused widespread damage. Electricity lines were downed and roofs were torn off houses by the high winds. The government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":400959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[17027,17026],"class_list":["post-400958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-tonga-building","tag-tonga-parliament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/400959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}