'AMI' KILLS 22; LEAVES THOUSANDS
STRUGGLING
SUVA: 20th January -- It is exactly one week now
since Cyclone Ami struck the Northern and Eastern divisions of the Islands of
the Fiji Republic. It has taken all of a week to gather information of any
accuracy, since all telecommunications were destroyed, other than some emergency
satellite links being re-established in some population areas; roads, where they
existed were made impassable and ship docking facilities were also
destroyed.
But Ami's toll now has the nation reeling - of the
22 presumed dead, 14 bodies have so far been recovered. Virtually all were
drowned: one group in the Northern centre of Labasa when the local river broke
its banks and swept them away in the middle of the night, a second group who did
not understand (or follow) the cyclone warnings and put out to sea. One
was swept away when a tidal wave hit the low-lying islands of the Lau group
(near Tonga).
Three Catholic parishes have been severely
affected: Labasa, Napuka, both on the large Northern island of Vanua Levu, and
Wairiki or effectively the entire island of Taveuni. The writer was on
Taveuni a few days before the cyclone struck and is now informed that all the
areas he visited have been devastated. The Marist family, particularly the
Marist priests and Sisters, are responsible for the pastoral care of Taveuni
with its 12,000 people perhaps three quarters of whom are Catholic. At
Tutu, which is the Marist formation centre and also hosts the Young Farmers
Programme, as many as 100,000 dalo plants have been destroyed, along with all
their yaqona (kava). If one realizes that each dalo is worth a dollar, one
rapidly appreciates what this will mean to their notion of financial
self-sufficiency. Kava is worth more still. Rather more drastic
is the fact that other than its saleable value, dalo along with tapioca
(cassava) and other root crops are their daily bread. All have been
destroyed. This is the case throughout the North within a radius of some
100 km either side of the eye of the cyclone. The 'eye' crossed the 180
degree parallel over Tutu itself.
It was the cyclone that nobody took any notice
of! Cyclones are common place in Fiji at this time of the year but Suva,
where the Salesian community resides, has not had a severe cyclone for 10 years
- the city is complacent. Ami had no direct impact on Suva other than some
leaking roofs (nothing can handle the volume of water released in cyclonic
conditions!) and broken trees. The weather bureau gave little advanced
warning of Ami; most of us only heard of it for the first time on Monday
morning. It struck by 5 pm Monday afternoon. Fishermen had not
realized the potential dangers other than usual warnings of high seas.
Labasa had not had direct impact from a cyclone in living memory! 12 hours
later it was under 9 feet of water. Not a single house or business in the
busy Northern sugar town escaped damage.
Next week the kids return to school. For
people in Vanua Levu and Taveuni and Lau, that may not be the case. One
Catholic secondary college, St Bede's in Savsavu, will be unable to open since
it lost its roof. But other than structural damage to many schools, the
greater problem is that of basic necessities - food to survive in the first
instance. There will be no money for school fees, that's for
sure.
