Last week, 2 archipelagos of the French Polynesia have been touched by a hurricane named OLI. This hurricane has gone very near from the islands of Bora Bora and of Tahiti ( Society islands), making materials damages relatively not too big. People have staid home (when construction was safe) or joined shelters. It is about 4000 persons who found refuges. About 300 houses have been destroyed on this archipelago, either by the wind or by water from the sea (waves of 6m high at least) or from the rivers.
Then OLI went more south and his path was straight on the Austral archipelago, a group of islands very far and isolated. The eye of the hurricane was very close to RAIVAVE and during the night of the 4 to 5 February, the eye was on TUBUAI. The wind was very strong, with gusts up to 260km/h and with a heavy swell of around 8m.
Due to the respect of security injunctions, the 2000 persons living on this island joined the shelters (churches, school, and gymnasium). One man was dead, drowned by a wave. Very few people were little injured. The material damages are important : no more drinking water, no electricity neither phone, the harbor and many parts of the road are destroyed, and around up to 200 houses are also destroyed or out of use according to the latest estimate.
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