IMODE News

December 15, 2009 – 4:23PM (source: AP)

Three people are dead after a tropical cyclone battered Fiji, causing flooding, damaging homes and power lines, and forcing thousands of villagers to flee to shelters.

Cyclone Mick, Fiji’s first cyclone this summer season, ripped through the most populated island of Viti Levu on Monday night and is headed toward Tonga, which has been placed on alert.

Fiji’s National Disaster Management Office said the death and injury toll was reduced by people from the South Pacific nation heeding the cyclone warning and flocking to emergency shelters ahead of the storm.

“People took evasive action … took the warning seriously and moved to shelters because their homes were not strong enough and also because they feared the flood waters,” the agency’s principal officer, Patiliai Dobui, told Associated Press.

Some 3000 people had sought shelter ahead of the damaging winds and torrential rains, but by late today most had returned to their homes, he said.

Fiji’s Meteorological Service said winds gusting up to 150 kilometres an hour were recorded close to the Category 2 cyclone’s epicentre, with winds averaging 90 to 110 kilometres an hour.

Category 1 is the lowest cyclone rating, Category 5 the highest.

Mick was a “very vicious” cyclone with damaging gale force winds that struck up to six hours earlier than expected, said Tim Sutton, of the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), who is based in Suva.

“There’s a lot of damage. Lots of trees down, power lines down everywhere, all the roads around Viti Levu are still closed with flooding and landslides,” he told New Zealand’s National Radio.

On the west coast of Viti Levu, two people were swept away in the Sigatoka River, while a student from Drala village in the Nadarivatu highlands died instantly when a tree fell on him.

Tourists on the Yasawa and Mamanuca islands northwest of Viti Levu were reported safe, but Octopus Resort was forced to close because of damage.

Dobui said the disaster management office had still not heard from some small outer islands after contact was lost during the storm. Fiji is an archipelago of more than 320 islands.

AP

Report Pacific Beat:
There are claims Fiji’s only remaining economic income, in the wake of the 2006 military coup, is from its struggling tourism industry.

The claim was made in a paper presented by the Lowy Institute, which has released its 2009 Pacific Islands Update report.

Just last month, the Governor of Fiji’s Reserve Bank claimed the global financial crisis has had a bigger impact on Fiji’s economy than any political developments.

Sada Reddy claimed the impact of the annulment of Fiji’s constitution and strict media censorship, had only a very minor impact on the local economy.

But Professor Ron Duncan of The Australian National University, the author of the Fiji Economic Performance and Investment report for the Lowy Institute, said the economy is in a terrible state

Prof Duncan said Fiji’s sugar and garment industries are both doing poorly right now.

“I think employment is down to around 4,000 or less in the garment industry,” he said.

“Exports are down because of the global economic crisis. Then there’s mineral water which was the main sales to the US, and of course that market’s in a bad way for many of these kinds of exports.” (20/10abc)

Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee has appealed the ban on Fiji taking part in next year’s Delhi Commonwealth Games, saying sport should not be part of sanctions directed at the interim regime.

Fiji was banned after being suspended from the Commonwealth for failing to hold elections this year.

Association president, Vidhya Lakhan, says the head of the Commonwealth Games Federation has set up a meeting with the Commonwealth secretary general in London next week.

Mr Lakhan said the Secretary-General will be asked to take a resolution to the Commonwealth Heads of Governments’ meeting in Trinidad in November, asking for Fiji’s athletes not to be punished because of politics.

He said his association is also writing to all Commonwealth Games Associations to have them solicit the support of their heads of governments at CHOGM in Port of Spain.

The management at a primary and secondary school on the Vanuatu island of Malekula sent 300 students home on Tuesday (October 20) following a protest by custom land owners.
The landowners closed down the school claiming the Government owes them 90 million vatu, or $USD940,000, in outstanding rent.

The Government is negotiating with the landowners to allow the children continue their studies.

The Director-General of lands, Russel Nari, said the government can’t release the money because the land is still in dispute and the issue is now before the land court.

Mr Nari said the government would pay it after the court confirms the true custom owners.

The present term is particularly important for many students because they have examinations which determine whether they can progress to higher classes next year.