Downed
power lines and flooding are hampering relief efforts in Fiji after one of the
most powerful storms recorded in the southern hemisphere tore through the
Pacific island nation, flattening remote villages and killing at least 18
people.
On Monday, officials were scrambling to
restore services and assess damage caused on Saturday by tropical cylone
Winston in remote parts of the Pacific Island chain.
Harsh winds and torrential rains tore up hundreds
of homes and cut power, water and communications links across the nation of
about 900,000 people, although Suva, the capital, escaped the brunt after the
storm changed direction at the last minute.
Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama declared a
30-day state of emergency, with schools ordered to shut and a nationwide curfew
extended until Monday morning.
"When we are able we will provide timelines
for the return of water and power," he said, adding that electricity
supply to some areas had been deliberately cut to avert further damage.
The archipelago of about 300 islands — about 100
are inhabited — hit late on Saturday by the tropical cyclone, which packed
winds of 143 miles per hour that gusted up to 202 miles per hour.
Getting emergency supplies to the group's
far-flung islands and remote communities was the government's top priority said
Ewan Perrin, Fiji's permanent secretary for communications.
"The logistics of getting supplies and
equipment to remote communities is difficult," he said. "Some have
lost their jetties and it's uncertain if airstrips are able to be landed
on."
Perrin said authorities on Monday were sending a
vessel to Koro Island filled with medical supplies, food and water. He said
crews on the boat would build temporary shelters for those people on the island
whose homes had been destroyed.
Perrin said the electricity network across Fiji
remained patchy, and in some cases power had been deliberately cut to prevent
further damage. He said clean water was also a challenge, and people were being
asked to boil their water, treat it with chemicals or drink bottled water.
Phone communications had been rapidly restored in
many areas but in other areas the damage was severe and would take longer to
fix, he said.
He said Fijians were taking the disaster in
stride.
"The people here are fairly resilient and
they're accustomed to these things happening," he said. "Most are
going about their business or helping clean up. There's been a very
well-coordinated disaster response and we're deploying quickly."
Perrin said most of the people who died in the
cyclone were hit by flying debris or were in buildings which collapsed. A
handful of people had also been hospitalized with severe injuries, he said.
Humanitarian agencies warned Fiji may be facing a
potential health crisis, mainly due to the lack of electricity. Low-lying river
areas where hundreds of people live in tin sheds are also particularly
vulnerable, aid workers said.
"We need electricity to ensure pumps are
working and for sterilization," Raijeli Nicole, an official of aid agency
Oxfam, told Reuters by telephone that flights have been scheduled on Sunday to
assess damage in remote areas.
George Dregaso of Fiji's National Disaster
Management Office said that two people on Ovalau Island died when the house
they were sheltering in collapsed on them, and that another man was killed on
Koro Island, although it wasn't clear how he died.
About 80 percent of the nation's population was
without regular power, although about one-third of them were able to get some
electricity from generators, said Dregaso. Landlines throughout Fiji were down,
but most mobile networks were working.
Dregaso said 483 people evacuated their homes and
were staying in 32 emergency shelters. He said he expected the number of
evacuees to rise.
"Some villages have reported that all homes
have been destroyed," Jone Tuiipelehaki of the United Nations Development
Program tweeted late on Saturday.
People flocked to 758 evacuation centers on
Saturday, while tourists hunkered down in hotel ballrooms and conference rooms
in coastal areas.
"The images that we're starting to see roll
in are terrifying," Alice Clements, a UNICEF official based in Suva said
by telephone, describing visuals of a car on a building roof and a small plane
nose down in debris.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who
offered to send a P-3 Orion aircraft to help in the relief effort, said about
1,200 Australians were registered as being in Fiji, although there could be
many more.
Australians are frequent travelers to the
archipelago, which gets around 340,000 tourists each year. Airlines Virgin and
Jetstar on Saturday suspended flights to Fiji, and the national carrier
suspended all flights.
"Fiji Hit by
Record-breaking Cyclone." Aljazeera
America. N.p., 21 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
This article
discusses a recent cyclone that hit Fiji. The author if this article has a
slight bias towards Fiji as it shows ways in which Fiji has reacted well to
this crisis. I think what has happened in Fiji is really sad. A lot of houses
were destroyed. It says in the article that "all homes have been
destroyed" in some villages. This is causing many people to seek emergency
shelters. This makes Fiji a health risk as it mentions in the article. Given
the current state of Fiji after this cyclone a health epidemic would be another
disaster that would be hard to quell. This author assumes that the readers
would have a general knowledge of the geography of Fiji. This is why the author
does not go into detail of the places of the different islands pf Fiji and
where they are located in relation to where the storm hit. This article has many statements by people in
Fiji to support their article if the impact of the cyclone. Almost all of the
evidence the article provides are statements. Most are statements made by
government officials or people working in major organizations, so the
statements are more credible. This author makes a statement saying that this is
"one of the most powerful storms recorded in the southern
hemisphere." This shows some context of other storms that have happened in
the same general area. The article also briefly mentions the fact the Fijians
are used to these situations. This implies a pattern with these kinds of storms.
It will be interesting to see how the government in Fiji handles the blowout of
this disaster, and whether or not they will be able to reach isolated areas
before more damage is done. This article has a very optimistic opinion, but if
one searches this disaster up on google, it is evident that more harm has come
to the people of Fiji as a result of this disaster. This will affect Fiji in
the years to come economically and socially.
