23 Jan 2013

Garry passes American Samoa without causing major problems

9:50 am on 23 January 2013

Tropical cyclone Garry is passing American Samoa without causing any major problems.

The gale wind warning for the main island of Tutuila in American Samoa has been cancelled but high surf warning for all shores of the territory remains in effect.

The National Weather Service in Pago Pago says Garry is now north of the Manu'a islands.

Tutuila is now under a wind advisory while Manua is still under a storm warning.

Our correspondent Monica Miller says the local weather service had said Garry has been a real challenge to track.

She says at this stage, the cyclone hasn't posed any problems for the Territory.

"When we checked in with people from Manu'a, around midnight, most of them were sleeping and they said they hardly felt any winds and the predicted heavy rainfall didn't really happen and that was also the case here for Tutuila, the main island, we had been under a gale wind warning with winds expected around 40 to 50 miles per hour, but everything was calm."

Monica Miller says all public and private schools have been cancelled today.