The RAAF arrives in Fiji with a delivery of humanitarian aid for victims of Cyclone Evan. Picture: David Geraghty Source: News Limited
An Aussie couple's amateur video from their resort in Fiji.
CARRIED by a C-17 Globemaster plane, the first military shipment of Australian emergency supplies to Fiji touched down last night, as the Pacific Island nation began its recovery from the worst tropical storm in living memory.
"We're just getting stuck into the load now," the plane's captain, 26-year-old Flight Lieutenant Luke Ridgway, said as the first of the giant pallet-loads was unloaded by RAAF forklift truck.
"We've got tarpaulins, sanitation kits, basic hygiene supplies, the necessities. This is our bread and butter. We love doing humanitarian assistance."
Nabutu Settlement remains flooded as the clean-up begins and many people are homeless. Picture: David Geraghty Source: News Limited
The military consignment represents part of the $1m in emergency aid agreed by Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr in the cyclone's immediate aftermath.
Aid agencies believe Cyclone Evan has left an estimated 14,000 Fijians living in evacuation centres, amid fears that outbreaks of dengue fever, cholera or dysentery may be carried by flood waters that have followed the storm.
With the situation finely balanced, there have been no reported deaths, but the Fijian government is already monitoring for outbreaks of disease. AusAID officials say they may need more money, and further military flights into Fiji.
About 60 houses were destroyed in Nabutu Settlement. Picture: David Geraghty Source: News Limited
A few kilometres down the road from Nadi airport, on the island's western coast, the need for these supplies is clear.
Sameena Shamini picks through the ruin of her home with her 4-year-old son, Rahen. A bare wooden floor, littered with plastic water bottles, the building's walls and roof were picked up, broken and thrown down by Evan's 270km/h winds.
"We will see if anybody can help rebuild," Mrs Shamini said. "We've got no food to eat. Yesterday, our neighbours gave us some cassava. They were crying."
Like many others who have lost their homes, Mrs Shamini says she has had no contact from the Fijian government, yet Australia's Acting High Commissioner, Glenn Miles, said the next few days are vital.
"Getting this emergency shipment in is key, but now it turns into a humanitarian relief effort. It's about shelter, water, food," he said.
Even without official help, the Fijians are starting to rebuild.
The Nabutu Settlement, a coastal village of about 300 people in Lautoka, western Fiji, saw more than half its roughly 125 homes torn apart by the winds, or the waves that followed.
Their blue, timbered church now lies twisted, its back wall almost ripped away and the front, above the altar, shattered beneath a fallen breadfruit-tree. Elsewhere among the devastation lies the ruin of the settlement's sea-wall, a metre high line of concrete and stone that, too, has now been torn away.
Without it, storm waves surged through the community, washing buildings away. Pointing to the wall, 39-year-old villager Libai Nauca said: "This was built by our great- great-grandfathers. It was destroyed only by this hurricane."
Yesterday, Nabutu's men and children were rebuilding their sea defences, using the wreckage of their shattered homes, while the settlement's women dragged their sodden clothes and bedding and clothes outside into the sun.
At the same time, hundreds of stranded Australian holidaymakers flocked to Nadi airport after flights were resumed. Still largely without power, the darkened departure halls were filled with snaking queues of people, many uncertain whether they could be sure of a seat on a plane.
Lisa and Tony Pryde with daughter Isadora prepare to leave Nadi airport after being stranded in Fiji during Cyclone Evan. Picture: David Geraghty Source: News Limited
Tony and Lisa Pryde, from Menai in Sydney, arrived in Fiji just days before the Category 4 storm struck, to celebrate their birthdays with their 15-month old daughter Isadora.
They spent most of their holiday in lockdown, confined to the windowless ballroom of the Sheraton hotel along with hundreds of other guests.
"I left my old job, so I had a bit of money from the pay-out and we thought `no birthday presents, no Christmas presents, we'll just save it up and come here," Mr Pryde, 46, said.
"All we've been able to do is sit in a dark room, listen to the sirens and try to entertain a one-year old."
After the cyclone passed, 31-year-old Mrs Pryde said that "we looked out of our window and it was just devastation, and sad". Like other hotel guests, they volunteered to help with the clean-up efforts that are no taking place.
While thousands of Australians are thought to have been in Fiji when the storm struck, AusAID Minister Counsellor in Fiji, John Davidson, said many of the country's poorest people had been hit hardest.
It will be days before the development agency had an accurate picture of the devastation, he said.
A number of remote, potentially vulnerable low-lying islands in the country's north can be contacted only by boat and no one yet knows what the damage there had been.
Striking Fiji's western coast, home to both Fiji's sugar cane and tourism industry, Cyclone Evan "is going to kick the stuffing out of Fiji's economy," Mr Davidson said.
"There's been a pretty good rapid response so far, but when you look at the enormity of what people are facing, this isn't going to be cured in the short-term."
"This is our bread and butter. We love doing humanitarian assistance." Picture: David Geraghty Source: News Limited
