Villages flattened, baby killed as super cyclone hits Fiji

SUVA • Super cyclone Yasa flattened entire villages as it tore through Fiji, aid agencies said yesterday, with a baby among two confirmed deaths and rescue workers racing to the worst-hit areas.

Yasa made landfall at the Pacific Island nation late on Thursday as a top-of-the-scale Category Five cyclone, lashing Fiji's second-largest island, Vanua Levu.

The storm triggered floods, landslides and blackouts before moving out to sea early yesterday, where it rapidly weakened to a Category Three system.

Mr Zalim Hussein of Savusavu, a small town of a few thousand people on Vanua Levu, said he feared for his life sheltering at home in the dark as screeching winds ripped apart houses around him.

"I could hear roofs of neighbouring houses flying, trees falling and branches breaking outside, and big waves crashing on the shore," he said. "We were all scared for our lives and I thought at one point we'd lose our home. In my 65 years, I've never seen anything like this."

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said two deaths had been confirmed - a 45-year-old man and a three-month-old baby.

"We sadly expect fatalities to rise," he said.

Most dwellings in rural Fiji are made from timber and corrugated iron sheeting, and are not made to withstand winds like those unleashed by Yasa, which had been forecast to bring gusts of up to 345kmh.

"Quite a few villages are reporting that all homes have been destroyed," Save the Children's Fiji chief Shairana Ali said.

"Most of these people rely on farming for their livelihood and their crops have been destroyed as well."

The Red Cross said it was scrambling response teams amid "extensive destruction" in Vanua Levu's Bua region and coastal communities inundated by storm surges.

Aid agencies had pre-positioned supplies across the country in anticipation of major disasters during the cyclone season, which runs until May.

Mr Bainimarama said there were about 24,000 people taking shelter in almost 500 evacuation centres across the country.

A long-time campaigner for climate action, he blamed global warming for creating the recent monster storms.

A nationwide state of emergency was declared on Thursday, giving emergency services sweeping powers to impose curfews and movement restrictions for the next 30 days.

Yasa is the third Category Five storm to hit Fiji since 2016, when Cyclone Winston killed 44 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.

The most recent was Cyclone Harold, which claimed 31 lives as it tracked through the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga in April this year.

"It's devastating to see another big cyclone affect Fiji so soon after Cyclone Harold and so close to Christmas," the Red Cross' Suva-based Pacific chief Kathryn Clarkson said. "With communities that are already facing challenges because of Covid-19, this will only add to the hardships."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE