Preparations
When Percy quickly reached cyclone strength, forecasters began to issue watches and warnings for the American Samoa and Tokelau areas, which were impacted by earlier storms Nancy and Olaf. As Percy continued to move eastward, forecasters predicted the storm to strengthen into a Category 2 or Category 3 storm within 12–24 hours. meanwhile, forecasters issued gale warnings for Tokelau. On 26 February, forecasters predicted Percy would stay on its current track and miss the island of Atafu by 50–70 miles (80–113 km), even though the storm could bring damaging gale force winds and heavy rains to the island. However, forecasters predicted Percy would make landfall on Tokelau. In American Samoa, hurricane warnings were issued for Swains Island, while the rest of American Samoa remained under a hurricane watch. Later, the gale warnings for Tokelau were changed to hurricane warnings as Percy moved to within 75 miles (121 km) north of Atafu. In Nukunou and Fakaofo, forecasters predicted that the cyclone would bring 60-70 mph (95–111 km/h) winds, heavy rains and possible flooding in low lying areas.
Forecasters predicted that Cyclone Percy was going to turn to the southeast and hit the islands of Pukapuka and Nassau directly. Because of this, evacuations were ordered and emergency shelters were activated in Rarotonga. Forecasters also predicted that Percy was going to cause a strong storm surge. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center and NOAA also predicted that the storm was going to strengthen further within 12–24 hours. In addition, forecast models predicted that Cyclone Percy would take a similar track like Cyclone Olaf weeks earlier. That prompted officials in the southern Cook Islands to order evacuations.
Read more about this topic: Cyclone Percy
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