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FIRST HAND REPORT NIUE Niue’s .NU rebuilds after a Super Cyclone destroys the WiFi Nation INTERNET USERS SOCIETY OF NIUE 1 a summer New Year’s day on Niue island in the tiny nation of the It’slower South Pacific, and the only Niue’s .NU visible activity around Alofi, (the nation’s capital) is the occasional rebuilds after a Super Cyclone destroys the Niuean emerging for fresh bread and maybe a liter of milk. Basically WiFi Nation a typically quiet tropical summer By Richard St. Clair New Year’s morning. Today is the culmination of three A TINY NATION’S INTERNET HEROS months of hard work for the IUS-N Back in 1997, Stafford Guest, Richard St. Clair and I decided to set up the private non- technical team - myself and Emani profit Internet Users Society – Niue (IUS-N) to manage the .NU ccTLD. The goal was to convince Internet users all over the world to register enough .NU domain names so we Lui - to bring Internet services back could pay for the equipment, installation, maintenance, management and connectivity costs for free Internet services for all the people of the tiny isolated South Pacific island to WiFi users in downtown Alofi. nation of Niue. During the seven years since then, the technical team working in Niue – technical We had finally gotten a clean WiFi manager St. Clair and development director Emani Lui – have been able to pull off miracle after miracle – starting with the island’s first free email service in 1997, followed connection to Alofi and are now by the island’s first full-time digital connection to the Internet in 1999 and, as of last June, launching the first phase of free national WiFi services in Niue. They were able to ready to relaunch the free WiFi do all this in the face of hostile opposition from the government-owned Telecom, which wanted no free services of any sort to be available to Niue’s Internet users. Internet services to the 75 percent of Last month, they achieved their biggest miracle — they were able to protect virtually all the Internet connectivity and WiFi equipment on the Island from being destroyed the island’s Internet users in that area. by a Super Cyclone named Heta that flattened the island, battering it with 300 km/hr winds and 30 meter high waves — a Tsunami that swept across the island, ripping apart We had to put in the new direct the rainforest and destroying homes, cars, fuel tanks, and everything else in its path. Just a few hours after the Super Cyclone passed the island, St. Clair had most of the WiFi connection to Alofi because Internet equipment back up and running, and Lui had much of the WiFi system back up and running. But that didn’t mean Niue was back online worldwide yet — it took 10 the government-owned Niue days for the local Telecom provider to find a replacement for its satellite antenna, which the storm had destroyed. Telecom service had disconnected The story that follows is Richard St. Clair’s first hand report of what the cyclone’s fury was like. the DSL copper-cable connection – J. William Semich, President, Internet Users Society - Niue from IUS-N’s technical center, 2 INTERNET USERS SOCIETY OF NIUE where the satellite Frame Relay they had merged into a single, connection links Niue to the destructive entity: Cyclone Heta. Internet in New Zealand, to our Once named, Cyclone Heta was Internet Cafe in Alofi Center. immediately upgraded to a Category By shutting off the DSL connection, 3 storm (”Cyclone Storm Categories Telecom Niue had effectively Defined”, see below). By now, Heta blocked Internet users in Alofi had already hit Samoa at Savaii, (primarily local businesses and the doing extensive damage there. government) from using free WiFi to But that destruction is just a baby access the Internet. step for the fast-growing storm, which Today — New Year’s Day — is is to eventually attain a size and speed the day we have finally licked that will make Heta a Super Cyclone that problem. Residents run for cover in Samoa, where Cyclone Heta first made landfall as when it inevitably hits Niue. During the Christmas vacation we a “Category 3” storm. Now it’s the January 3rd, and as had completed a bypass Niue’s sole Internet service to the cut DSL link — we provider, we at IUS-N have put in a direct WiFi link, to make a decision on this from the machine room cyclone’s final destination at Kaimiti (the IUS-N using our “best guess” to technical center) to the determine if we’re in its Internet Cafe downtown. path. Because if we are, We connected that to we have to start moving the WiFi access point equipment to protect it. and repeater there, to In many cases, it’s a serve the rest of the flip of the coin that gives downtown area. you the best guess. Most We’ve picked out often, cyclones can come January 5th to be the After hitting Samoa, Cyclone Heta heads directly for Niue, and is upgraded to a “Category 5” storm. within 50 -100 miles opening day for the of Niue and fizzle out Internet Cafe and for the free WiFi services of the equator, January is summer here. before they reach us, or they just miss us, in Alofi, and today we are doing some last Others on Niue were using the Internet passing to the North or East or both. You minute tuning on the WiFi systems before the for the same thing. Soon, Niue’s long don’t really know what path it will take until public comes back in. time local arm-chair meteorologist, Daryl about 12 hours before it happens. But I’ve learned over the years that in the Spatz, along with the Niue Meteorological South Pacific — and in Niue in particular Service, started predicting that this set of But this one is different — things don’t always turn out as planned. depressions was starting to look a lot like Heta — still two or three days away — has For the past few days now I’ve been tracking, a cyclone. So the task of tracking became already been upgraded to a category 4 via the Internet, a group of tropical depressions increasingly important. storm and now it’s hundreds of miles wide. way up north of Samoa some 600 miles away. No matter which direction it heads for I’ve seen depressions like these before of Cyclone Heta now, it’s so big, it couldn’t possibly miss course — and they’re pretty frequent this time It’s January 2nd and on the storm tracking hitting Niue. At this point its simply a of year. After all, Niue is in the South Pacific’s sites the group of depressions receives an matter of how hard we’re going to be hit summer cyclone belt. And because we’re south official name, which by definition means and for how long. CYCLONE STORM CATEGORIES DEFINED Cyclone Category System CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 3 failures. A Category 4 cyclone’s strongest winds Negligible house damage. Damage to some Some roof and structural damage. Some are VERY DESTRUCTIVE winds with gusts of crops, trees and caravans. Craft may drag caravans destroyed. Power failures likely. 225 - 280 km/h. moorings. A Category 1 cyclone’s strongest A Category 3 cyclone’s strongest winds are VERY winds are GALES with gusts to 125 km/h. DESTRUCTIVE winds with gusts of CATEGORY 5 170 - 225 km/h. Extremely dangerous with widespread CATEGORY 2 destruction. A Category 5 cyclone’s strongest Minor house damage. Significant damage to CATEGORY 4 winds are VERY DESTRUCTIVE winds with gusts signs, trees and caravans. Heavy damage to Significant roofing loss and structural damage. of more than 280 km/h. some crops. Risk of power failure. Small Many caravans destroyed and blown away. craft may break moorings. Dangerous airborne debris. Widespread power INTERNET USERS SOCIETY OF NIUE 3 Now the calculations say that it’s all the desks and equipment. They’ve This final look reveals that a few hours ago, scheduled to hit Niue in full force, late already been here preparing for the worst Cyclone Heta had been officially upgraded afternoon, Monday, January 5th. We have as best as they can but now there are no to a Category 5 — a “Super Cyclone,” with 48 hours left. people in sight. The streets outside are data off the weather scales. It’s heading We start by taking down as many WiFi empty. It’s eerily peaceful. directly for Niue, on schedule, and it’s masts and antenna systems as possible. A car pulls up, it’s Maria Hunuki, hundreds of miles wide. The Weather Crank the towers down, fold over the Manager of the Business Advisory service. station I installed here is measuring 50 mph hingeable masts, and tie down anything “Can you believe this?” She says. winds by now. that moves. Some of this operation requires Yes, I can believe it. I’ve been tracking this We’ve done all we have time for. It’s time to the local crane and is a time consuming storm on the Internet for days now. go home and ride it out. If I wait another 10 exercise. The crane operators and crew We have some nervous small talk and she minutes here at the machine room, I probably won’t be able to get home. And I can’t stay here. This building will probably not be here Just then a few thousand tons of the in a couple hours.

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