Cyclone Keni

One of the owners of the Matavai Resort on Kadavu Luke Kerchevale says the storm seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Quite a large boat is capsized because we couldn't get it to shelter soon enough. We've had a number of huge mango trees come down on a lot of our buildings," said Luke Kerchevale.

The Australian who along with co-owner Mark hails from Canberra and Sydney said thankfully all of their staff and guests were safe but he said they were really worried for people in the nearby villages.

The Fiji Met Service said the cyclone remains a category three storm packing winds of 130 kilometres per hour, gusting up to 185.

However, Keni was forecast to weaken drastically as it continued to move southeast into cooler waters.

The Met Service said within the next 18 hours the system could cease to be a cyclone.

Cyclone Keni wreaked havoc as it passed the southern islands of Fiji overnight bringing destructive winds and downpours causing flooding.

Cyclone Keni is Category 3 storm and is expected to be closest to the islands from midday today.

The Fiji weather office is expecting Keni to pass south of Nadi before making landfall over the southern island of Kadavu.

People are being told to expect destructive winds of up to 170 kilometres an hour.

The government says they need to prepare a three day family disaster kit, strengthen their homes, be ready for power cuts and evacuate if need be.

It's the second cyclone to hit Fiji in just over a week after Cyclone Josie left six people dead over Easter.

At 6 am local time this morning it was about 760 km west northwest of Nadi and was starting to move east southeast about seven to 10 km an hour.

A lead forecaster at the office said the Category 1 storm was expected to become a Category 2 in the next 24 hours and there was a good chance the level could be raised to Category 3.

All schools in Fiji are closed for at least the next two days but are being made available as evacuation centres.

Last weekend Cyclone Josie killed six people and caused extensive damage.