One picture from that Greenpeace link in particular says it all: a region of tropical Sumatran forest cleared with as much wide-scale devastation as if a tsunami had taken out every last tree.
New Zealand's high commissioner in Apia, Nick Hurley, said the cyclone was bigger than other tropical storms he had experienced in the region, and its strength was unexpected.
So it's out near the dateline and in the central Pacific, and that moves a lot of tropical storm activity, thunderstorm activity, away from where it normally is north of Australia in the Monsoon region and the Indonesian region.