Letter from Fiji. Cyclone Tomas.

Watching the path Cyclone Tomas was taking I noticed how it was sweeping through the Lau Island Group and felt deeply for our dear friend Ela and her gorgeous parents. Ela's husband Brian has now written to say they are all alive and OK but Ela's entire village was hit quite badly.

 Here's the letter:

Thank you, dear friends, for your kind thoughts during the recent Cyclone Tomas in Fiji.  We thought we would update you with the latest.


Here's the picture of the path of the Cyclone:

Our small village of MAVANA  is on the un-named island (the island of Vanuabalavu) that has the thermometer symbol on it to the right of the yellow cyclone marker.

At last today, this afternoon, Ela's mum and dad made contact. The satellite phone was set back in working order and her dad, Jo, was the first one to get through. Things aren't as bad as we'd imagined but there's still a lot of work to be done. Luckily our village chief is there in person to lead the village back to rehabilitation.

Thankfully there were no casualties in Mavana but the roads to all the other villages are blocked so we still don't know the story from the other villages on the island. There is a rumour that LomaLoma Village - where the jetty is for the main island (about  30 km away) - was severely hit and is now very badly off.   

Our villagers say they were astounded at power of Cyclone Tomas. There wasn't a single dry place to shelter for the duration, what with the  deluge from the sky and the destruction from the sea where massive waves came over the sea wall and into and over the village green, but, as far as we can gather there was no major home destruction apart from the kindergarten section at the local school, and everyone's outside "tin-shed" kitchens and the traditional reed homes didn't stand up to the winds. 

All the items in the village store have been spoilt of course. Ela's Mum said that the force of the wind and the deluge got through the tiniest crack,  however she now knows that these homes are more solidly built than in some other places because Mavana has a long tradition of producing good carpenters, and she said she now thanks God for well-built structures as it makes such a difference. At times like these it's a cause for being thankful to these builders who take such a pride in their workmanship.

Here is a picture of the village before the Cyclone:

 You can see the big Community Hall (white roof) in the front and middle of the picture with the village store immediately to the right of it (red roof). That entire expanse of village green is now filled with a meter or so high huge coral formations and sand.

The huge waves rolling in also met with the waterfall in the hills at the back of the village (next picture shows the back of the village with its grove of coconut trees and big drains as they usually look),  so there is lots of debris at the back of the village blocking all the the drains, some of which are now broken.

All our food plantations have been chopped off at soil level and all the taro plants have all been buried under many feet of mud and soil. All the trees in the village are GONE with not one tree left standing, and it's still not clear whether any of the villages boats were saved from damage so that fishing can be resumed and keep the folk sustained.

The Vodophone tower which was at the top of the Mountain Korobasaga has completely blown away. Why Vodafone didn't dismantle it and lay it down before the cyclone is just insane since it cost nearly a million to install!!

So that's how things now stand. Everyone is now cleaning up, drying out belongings, fixing the broken water pipes and working out how to get the village generator functioning again. They say they have enough food for a week or so, but after that they will be scratching around. 

What they need now is to replace their lost kumala plants, planting the new crops in a hurry so that in three months they will have food back on line. They also need to find money for fares across on inter-island ferries because many young villagers who now work in other areas wish to come back to help with the replanting and rehabilitation but who can't afford it since everyone is suffering greatly in Fiji financially.


So that's how things stand in Mavana.  If you'd like to help, Jo is currently trying to raise money to bring the boys home.  If you want to help Jo and Mavana exclusively, you can always try contacting Brian at

http://www.rumbaresort.com.au/

Of course, if you'd prefer to donate to the entire Fiji Islands group, here's a link:


Fiji Cyclone Appeal 
 
IN the wake of Tropical Cyclone Tomas, the Fiji Times and ANZ Bank yesterday joined forces for the Fiji Cyclone Appeal. The Fiji Times kicked it off by committing to a $15,000 donation. And ANZ donated $50,000.
 
Donations can be made at ANZ branches worldwide, which will distributed through Fiji Red Cross Society. For the full story and many others go to Fiji Times Online.
 http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=142535

Give to the Fiji Cyclone Appeal