Fijians have spent the day assessing the damage caused by Cyclone Evan.
And as the massive cleanup effort gets underway Fiji’s warned it will need far more than the $300 million Samoa's asked for.
Nadi resident Delas Whippy has had his house ruined by the cyclone.
“All our clothes, bed, chair, there’s another one there – all ruined,” he says, “I have no idea what we'll do now. We'll just start from scratch.”
He's lost his roof, his kitchen, and his toilet, but not his smile.
“We have to smile so no-one knows what’s hurting inside. They will know we are always happy but inside it’s really hurting”
Hurting for himself and his nation, which has been battered by Cyclone Evan. Not one part of Nadi escaped the damage
Trees were blown down, crushing these two cars, while planes were flipped upside down. And at Denarau island a luxury launch suffered thousands of dollars worth of damage.
The cyclone was so intense last night that trees were uprooted and crashed into buildings.
Inside one hotel, the lobby was flooded..
“It’s pretty bad. We tried to get from our room down there and I couldn’t because of all the trees on the pathway. It’s pretty bad,” says tourist Ray Graham.
And it's no different in the small remote village of Nawaqarua, near Ba.
Last night all 270 residents huddled in their community centre as Evan ripped through their homes.
They awoke to see houses collapsed and almost all of their crops destroyed
Resident Voniana Uluda says she’s grateful her family is safe.
“We were really scared, we thought we had lost our lives but thank God we were able to save our little kids and families.”
They’re families that have lost everything, but are determined to stay and rebuild.
Another resident of the village, Sereana Vulisina, says people will help each other.
“The first thought that came to my mind was, ‘I don’t know how we will construct this, put it up again’. But luckily the neighbours came. The people don’t worry. We'll help you put up your house.”
And they'll need a lot of help to rebuild an entire village
3 News
source: newshub archive
