Fiji has launched a clean-up
after the most powerful cyclone in the Pacific island-nation’s history left
a trail of destruction, killing at least 21 people, destroying homes and
damaging infrastructure.
The storm struck the popular
tourist destination
overnight on Saturday, packing wind gusts of 325km per hour, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
overnight on Saturday, packing wind gusts of 325km per hour, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
Fiji’s National Disaster
Management Office (NDMO) said 21 people had been confirmed dead on Monday.
No immediate breakdown of the
fatalities was available but the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation reported many of
the dead were from the hard-hit west of the country and seven fishermen were
missing at sea.
Al Jazeera’a Andrew Thomas,
reporting from Nadi, said the country’s major cities of Suva and Nadi appeared
to have escaped the brunt of the storm.
“But until proper information
comes in from other areas, it is still hard to say that Fiji has dodged a bullet,”
our correspondent said.
Winston was the first storm
system to hit Fiji measuring a maximum Category Five.
“Homes have been destroyed, many
low-lying areas have flooded,” Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister, said
in a statement.
“In the aftermath of this great
tragedy, many are without power and full access to water, and are cut off from
communication.”
The cyclone, the strongest ever
recorded in the southern hemisphere, flattened scores of homes, crippled
infrastructure and forced terrified residents to shelter in evacuation centres.
Photographs taken from a Royal
New Zealand Air Force plane showed the devastation wrought on remote villages
that bore the brunt.
Many homes were reduced to piles
of kindling, with roofing and furniture strewn about by winds that were strong
enough to strip leaves and branches from trees.
Oxfam’s Pacific regional
director Raijeli Nicole said the scale of the disaster would only become
apparent when communications were restored with remote communities.
“The Fijians are desperately
trying to repair severed lines of communication, but they hold grave fears that
the news waiting for them will be dire,” she said.
“Given the intensity of the
storm and the images we have seen so far, there are strong concerns that the
death toll won’t stop climbing today and that hundreds of people will have seen
their homes and livelihoods completely destroyed.”
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