Cyclone Val

File:Val 1991 track.png

During the opening days of December 1991, the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) started to monitor a small circulation, that had developed along the Intertropical Convergence Zone, just to the north of Tokelau as a result of a surge within the westerlies.{{cite report |publisher=Fiji Meteorological Service |title=Tropical Cyclone Report 91/2: Tropical Cyclone Val, December 4 - 13, 1991 |archive-date=January 26, 2022|access-date=September 24, 2024 |author=Pandaram, Sudha |author2=Prasad, Rajendra |date=July 7, 1992 |url=http://www.pacificdisaster.net/doc/JB_DM393d_FJI_1991_TC_Val.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220126144639/http://www.pacificdisaster.net/doc/JB_DM393d_FJI_1991_TC_Val.pdf |url-status=live}}{{cite journal|author=Ward, Graham F.A |date=March 1, 1995 |title=Prediction of tropical cyclone formation in terms of sea-surface temperatures vorticity and vertical windshear |issue=1 |volume=44 |pages=63–64 |journal=Australian Meteorological Magazine |url-status=live |archive-date=April 14, 2012 |url=http://www.bom.gov.au/jshess/docs/1995/ward.pdf |access-date=September 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414065226/http://www.bom.gov.au/amoj/docs/1995/ward.pdf}} Over the next few days, the system moved westwards towards Rotuma and Tuvalu, where it lay near the centre of an area of upper level outflow. During December 4, the FMS classified the system as a tropical depression by the FMS, while it was located just to the southeast of Tuvalu and moving north-westwards.{{cite journal|author=Gill, Jonathan P |title=The South Pacific and Southeast Indian Ocean Tropical Cyclone Season 1991–1992 |journal=Australian Meteorological Magazine |volume=43 |pages=181–192 |issn=1836-716X |oclc=469881562 |url=http://www.bom.gov.au/jshess/docs/1994/gill.pdf|access-date=July 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321171916/http://www.bom.gov.au/amm/docs/1994/gill.pdf |archive-date=March 21, 2012 |url-status=live}} The system was then named Val by the FMS during the next day, after it had become a category 1 tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale.{{cite web|url={{IBTRACS url|id=1991338S08181}}|publisher=International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship|title=1991 Severe Tropical Cyclone Val (1991338S08181)|access-date=March 28, 2020}}{{cite journal|title=Hurricane Alley: Cyclones of the Southeast Pacific Ocean 1990–1991: Tropical Cyclone Val, December 4 - 13, 1991|hdl=2027/uiug.30112104094179|issn=0025-3367|oclc=648466886|journal=Mariners Weather Log|year=1992|volume=36|issue=4: Fall 1992|publisher=United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Oceanographic Data Center|page=56|editor=DeAngellis, Richard M}} During that day the United States Naval Western Oceanography Center (NWOC) designated the system as Tropical Cyclone 06P and started to issue advisories, while Val started to move towards the south-southeast, after the upper level north-westerly steering winds increased.{{cite report|title=1992 Annual Tropical Cyclone Report |chapter=4. Summary of South Pacific and South Indian Tropical Cyclones |publisher=United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center|chapter-url=http://www.usno.navy.mil/NOOC/nmfc-ph/RSS/jtwc/atcr/1992atcr.pdf |archive-date=March 18, 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=June 26, 2013 |pages=183–190|archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/66G4sP6bD?url=http://www.usno.navy.mil/NOOC/nmfc-ph/RSS/jtwc/atcr/1992atcr.pdf |year=1993}} During December 6, the NWOC reported that the system had become equivalent to a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale as Val continued to steadily intensify and moved south-eastwards, away from Tuvalu and towards the Samoan Islands. Early on December 7, the FMS reported that the system had become a category 3 severe tropical cyclone, as it started to be steered southwards by upper-level northerlies.

Later that day, the FMS reported that Val had reached its peak 10-minute sustained wind speeds of about 165 km/h (105 mph), which made it a category 4 severe tropical cyclone on the Australian scale. The system subsequently made landfall on the Samoan island of Savaii at around 1800 UTC (07:00 SST), while the NWOC reported that the cyclone had peaked with 1-minute sustained wind speeds of about 230 km/h (145 mph), which made it equivalent to a category 4 hurricane on the SSHWS.{{#tag:ref|This article defines Samoa Standard Time as being 11 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) per the local time used in Western Samoa between 1892 and December 29, 2009.{{cite news|url=http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/samoa-to-move-the-international-dateline/story-e6frf7jx-1226051660380 |title=Samoa to move the International Dateline |newspaper=Herald Sun |date=May 7, 2011 |access-date=May 25, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502115416/http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/samoa-to-move-the-international-dateline/story-e6frf7jx-1226051660380 |archive-date=May 2, 2016 |url-status=live }}{{cite news|title=Samoa and Tokelau skip a day for dateline change |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16351377 |date=December 30, 2011 |access-date=May 25, 2014 |newspaper=BBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521042955/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16351377 |archive-date=May 21, 2014 |url-status=live }}|group="nb"|name="SST"}} After Val had passed over the island, weakening upper-level winds caused the system to slow down before it made a sharp clockwise loop which almost brought it over Savaii for a second time. During December 9, Val completed its loop and started to move eastwards and gradually weaken, before it passed over the American Samoan island of Tutuila early the next day.{{cite journal|url=http://bibliotheque.meteo.fr/exl-php/docs/ILS_DOC/235666/doc00025266__PDF.txt|year=1993|issue=159|access-date=March 28, 2020|page=25|title=Saison des perturbations tropicales dans le Pacifique sud-ouest, 1991 - 1992|journal=MetMar}} After passing over American Samoa, Val appeared to threaten the Southern Cook Islands and was expected to pass close to Palmerston Island. However, as the system continued to weaken, it started to move more towards the south-southeast then had been expected, which spared the Cook Islands. During December 12, the FMS reported that Val had weakened into a category two tropical cyclone and passed the primary warning responsibility for the system to the New Zealand Meteorological Service (NZMS) after Val had moved out of its area of responsibility. Shortly after moving into the NZMS's area of responsibility, Val transitioned into a strong extratropical depression. Storm force winds subsequently persisted around the centre of Val's extratropical remnants for the next 3 days, before the system was captured and sheared apart by strong environmental westerlies associated with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current as it approached 50°S.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Val caused over US$300 million in damage and caused 17 deaths, as it impacted the Cook Islands, American Samoa, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu as well as Wallis and Futuna. Some of these island nations were still recovering from the effects of Severe Tropical Cyclone Ofa, which had impacted Polynesia less than two years earlier. Val's main impacts were to the Samoan Islands, where it was responsible for 14 deaths and was considered to be the worst tropical cyclone to impact the islands since the 1889 Apia cyclone.{{cite book|author1=Ashcroft, Paul|author2=Ward, R. Gerard|year=1998|isbn=982-02-0134-9|pages=11–29|title=Samoa: mapping the diversity|url={{Google books|id=cso6JiinsaEC|plainurl=yes}}}} As a result of the impact of this storm, the name Val was retired from the tropical cyclone naming lists.{{RA V Tropical cyclone operational plan}}

File:Cyclone Val, Western Samoa (1991).jpg

On December 6, the FMS placed Western Samoa under a gale warning as it had become apparent that Val would impact the island nation, before issuing a storm and a hurricane warning for the island as the system moved closer to the archipelago.{{cite report|author=National Disaster Council|title=Preliminary damage assessment report for Cyclone Val, December 6 - 9, 1991|date=December 13, 1991|url=http://www.pacificdisaster.net/doc/JB_DM277_WSM_1991_damage_assessment_report.pdf|access-date=October 1, 2024|publisher=Government of Western Samoa}} During that day, northeasterly winds and high seas caused damage to coastal areas on both Savaii and Upolu, before the weather stations at Apia and Faleolo started to report that gale-force winds were occurring during December 7. In a radio broadcast ahead of Val making landfall, the then Samoan Prime Minister: Tofilau Eti Alesana prayed for the country to be spared the worst of Val, but also urged Samoan's to accept the storm as God's will.{{cite news|agency=Agence France Presse|title=Samoan PM prays as cyclone threatens|date=December 7, 1991|via=Lexis Nexis}} The system made landfall on the island of Savaii at about 18:00 UTC (07:00 SST) on December 7, where hurricane-force winds of up to {{convert|90|kn|km/h mph|round=5|abbr=on|order=out}} and wind-gusts of up to {{convert|130|kn|km/h mph|round=5|abbr=on|order=out}} were thought to have occurred.{{cite report|date=December 9, 1991|title=Cyclones Val and Wasa Situation Report No. 1|url=http://www.pacificdisaster.net/doc/WSM_TC_1991_sitrep1_8.pdf|publisher=United Nations Disaster Relief Organization|access-date=October 1, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216211200/http://www.pacificdisaster.net/pdnadmin/data/original/WSM_TC_1991_sitrep1_8.pdf|archive-date=February 16, 2017}} After the system had made landfall, Val started to move south-westwards and away from the Western Samoa, which prompted the FMS to forecast that winds over the islands would decrease over the islands during December 9. This had the impact of causing Samoan's to drop their guard, start clearing up, repairing houses and going about their day-to-day business, however, during that day the system completed a cyclonic loop just to the southwest of Savaii, which almost brought Val over the island for a second time. After completing the cyclonic loop, Val moved eastwards and passed about {{convert|20|km|mi|round=5|abbr=on}} to the south of Upolu during December 9, before it started to move south-eastwards away from the Samoan Islands during December 10, after it had made landfall on Tutuila in American Samoa.

On December 6, the FMS placed American Samoa under a gale warning as it had become apparent that the system would impact the American territory, before the warning was upgraded to a hurricane warning the following day as Val moved closer to the archipelago. On December 8, the FMS downgraded the warning to a gale warning as the threat of Val passing near the territory decreased since the system had started to move southwards and now directly threatened the Samoan island of Savaii. After Val had passed over Savaii and performed a clockwise loop, the FMS realised that the system would move eastwards and pass over American Samoa, which caused them to reissue the hurricane warning.

As Val's precursor tropical depression developed, strong winds associated with the intertropical convergence zone, caused some minor damage to the Tuvaluan atoll of Funafuti and various other atolls in the island nation.{{cite report|author=Barstow, Stephen F |author2=Haug, Ola |publisher=South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission|title=The Wave Climate of Tuvalu |page=13 |archive-date=February 2, 2014 |url=http://sopaccompendium.spc.int/data/Reports/TR0203.pdf |access-date=May 26, 2013 |date=November 1994 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202171039/http://sopaccompendium.spc.int/data/Reports/TR0203.pdf |url-status=live |type=SOPAC Technical Report 203}} During December 4, a strong wind warning was issued for the island nation of Tokelau, after the system had developed into a tropical depression. A tropical cyclone alert was subsequently issued during the next day, as it was thought that the cyclone could pose a threat to the island nation as it moved eastwards. During December 6, the FMS issued a gale warning for the whole of Tokelau, before gale-force winds of up to {{convert|75|km/h|mph|round=5|abbr=on}} were observed at Atafu, as Val passed about {{convert|370|km|mi|round=5|abbr=on}} to the south-west of the island nation. Squally conditions subsequently persisted over the islands for the next few days, with Fakaofo recording gale-force winds during December 10, in association with a convective rainband. Within the island nation, residents took refuge in a school building, while strong winds and high seas caused damage to homes and several uncompleted seawall structures, that were being installed following Ofa's impacts on the islands. The United Nations Development Programme subsequently funded a project between 1992 and 1995, which provided a limited reconstruction of the areas damaged by the cyclone. Total damages within the island nation were estimated at {{ntsp|750000||US$}}.

During December 6, as the system moved southeastwards towards Samoa, the threat of gale-force or stronger winds developing over northern Tonga and the island of Wallis, within the French Overseas Territory of Wallis and Futuna increased. As a result, the FMS issued gale warnings for the islands of Niuafoʻou, Niuatoputapu and Wallis, while issuing a tropical cyclone alert for the rest of the Tongan islands. However, the warnings were cancelled during the next day, as the threat of gale-force or stronger winds developing over Wallis or northern Tonga had decreased. During December 8, after the system had made landfall on Savaii, Val started to move south-westwards and posed another threat to northern Tonga. As a result, a gale warning was reissued for Niuatoputapu, while the rest of Tonga was placed under a strong wind warning. A storm warning was subsequently issued for Niuatoputapu during December 9, after Val had produced gale-force winds over the island and moved closer to it. Storm-force winds of around {{Convert|95|km/h|mph|round=5|abbr=on}} were subsequently experienced on the island, while winds of below gale-force were experienced on Niuafoʻou. Wallis Island also did not experience any gale-force winds, however, some minor damage was reported on the island, after some minor flooding of coastal areas occurred.

During December 10, the FMS issued a gale warning for Palmerston Island and a tropical cyclone alert for the rest of the Southern Cook Islands, as Val accelerated south-eastwards and appeared to threaten the islands. However, the system subsequently moved more towards the south-southeast than had been expected and eventually passed around {{convert|370|km|mi|round=5|abbr=on}} to the west of Palmerston Island. As a result, the Southern Cook Islands were spared any major damage from the system. However, gale- and storm-force winds were reported on the island during December 11, which were subsequently attributed to a convective rainband and rain squalls that appeared on satellite imagery at the time. Gale-force winds were also reported over Pukapuka and nearby islands in the Northern Cook Islands during December 11. Within the Cook Islands, damages to crops and infrastructure were reported, with total damages estimated at $1 million NZD (US$544 thousand). The government of the Cook Islands also asked for money to repair a seawall.

The President of United States declared the event as a "major disaster", for which federal assistance was provided.{{Cite web|url=http://www.samoanews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=20421&edition=1288864800|title=FEMA posts 11 disaster declarations for territory over last 40 yrs|access-date=December 18, 2010| publisher= Samoanews| date=November 4, 2010}} The severity of Cyclone Val was aptly described by a local resident who stated: "But this Cyclone was stronger than me. For the first time I felt defeated I had never felt that before. I felt it was personal between me and Cyclone. I got depressed afterward."{{Cite book|last=Gold|first= Jerome|title= Cyclones|pages=77, 80|access-date=December 17, 2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N0PmYqgMsX0C&q=Cyclone+Val&pg=PA76|publisher= Black Heron Press|year=1994|isbn=0-930773-25-X}} Aid was provided to the affected zones based on a categorization as Category A, B, C, D, E and F. The categories are defined by the degree of damage suffered. Assistance covered individuals, households, and the State and local governments. The assistance encouraged private, nonprofit organizations (NGOs) to meet and discuss expense-related emergency work and the repair or replacement of disaster-damaged infrastructure. Assistance provided "Hazard Mitigation Grants" to secure life and property from hazards.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fema.gov/news/eventcounties.fema?id=2128|title=American Samoa Cyclone Val Major Disaster Declared December 13, 1991|access-date=December 17, 2010|publisher=US Department of Homeland Security:FEMA}} New Zealand and Australia provided considerable assistance to the affected population and helped with the reconstruction and recovery of infrastructure facilities. Samoans in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand helped finance the recovery by way of remittances to their relatives who suffered on the island.Ward, pp. 20–21

In 1991, American Samoa purchased a $45 million "all risk" insurance policy from the firm Affiliated FM Insurance. The firm would only pay up to $6.1 million for the damages, arguing that the insurance did not cover water damage, only that caused by the wind. Attorney William Shernoff investigated and discovered that the insurance company had altered American Samoa's insurance policy to exclude damages caused by "wind-driven water", despite the fact that it still covered cyclones. The case was taken to court, and in 1995, the jury awarded the American Samoa Government $28.9 million. Soon after, the amount was doubled to $57.8 million to include punitive damages. The total damages awarded by the judgment was $86.7 million, which the judge stated to be "the largest insurance bad faith verdict in the state of California in 1995".

The revenues of American Samoa for the fiscal years 2002 and 2003, which had been showing a downward trend, registered a substantial increase attributed to the insurance settlement of claims made to cover the damages caused by Cyclone Val. This resulted in fiscal surpluses. The deficit of US$23.1 million at the start of 2001 changed to a surplus of US$43.2 million by end of 2003.{{Cite book|title= U.S. Insular Areas: Economic, Fiscal, & Financial Accountability Challenges|year=2006|page=23|access-date=December 17, 2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yIzyUrFl_GkC&pg=PA23|publisher=DIANE Publishing|isbn=1-4223-1153-8}}

As the system impacted the Samoan Islands, the New Zealand Government set up an emergency task force, to coordinate their response to the cyclone.{{cite news|title=New Zealand to offer emergency relief to Western Samoa|agency=Xinhua General News Service |date=December 9, 1991}} The task force planned to deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion to conduct an aerial reconnaissance flight during December 8, however, this was postponed until December 10, due to the weather conditions over the Samoan Islands. They also planned to send a frigate to Samoa with relief supplies on board during December 10, as it was thought that the airport might have to be closed for a little while.

{{Reflist|group=nb}}

{{Portal|Tropical cyclones}}

• 1889 Apia cyclone
• Cyclone Evan
• Cyclone Heta

{{Reflist|2}}

{{SPAC EL's}}

{{1991–92 South Pacific cyclone season buttons}}

{{Category 4 South Pacific severe tropical cyclones}}

{{Retired South Pacific cyclones}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Val (1991)}}

Category:Category 4 South Pacific cyclones

Category:1991–92 South Pacific cyclone season

Category:Retired South Pacific cyclones

Category:1991 in Tokelau

Category:1991 in Tuvalu

Category:1991 in American Samoa

Category:1991 in Samoa

Category:1991 in the Cook Islands

Category:1991 in Tonga

Category:1991 in Wallis and Futuna

Category:Tropical cyclones in Tokelau

Category:Tropical cyclones in Tuvalu

Category:Tropical cyclones in American Samoa

Category:Tropical cyclones in Samoa

Category:Tropical cyclones in the Cook Islands

Category:Tropical cyclones in Tonga

Category:Tropical cyclones in Wallis and Futuna