This report was sent during Holy Week by Fr Donal McIlraith, an Irish Columban who has been in Fiji for many years.
The April flood in Ba was higher than the January one. When floods come we usually open our Church basement and the Fiji Government designates it as an evacuation centre. People usually try to cook for themselves with bits of firewood they find lying around. The 30 March – 2 April floods were the highest ever recorded and so we decided as a parish that we should transform the School canteen, conveniently located near the Church hall, into a food kitchen.
On Tuesday we had an unexpected guest, the Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama. He was visiting the evacuation centres of the West to see things for himself and came and spent an hour with us. Unfortunately Serafina missed him. The night before we had had a frantic call from the Cross walkers to provide food at the Raviravi church, a centre for our Indofijian community. Every year in Fiji, the youth carry crosses from different parts of the island to a Retreat Centre, the Ashram, during Holy Week. As you can imagine, the floods had thrown their schedules. We had been unable to contact the Raviravi people and decided that instead of cooking lunch for 100 we should cook for 200 and take the food out to Raviravi. Serafina had just left with Columban Deacon Taaremon Matauea to take the rice and curry and water to the walkers when the Prime Minister arrived.
Many of our guests were from hill villages such as Navala near Ba. They had come with crops, fruits and vegetables to sell and were caught in town by the floods. All transport was cancelled and many roads were also damaged. Slowly things returned to normal and as the roads open up, they will all leave the basement and we will close the Kitchen.
Seven deaths reported
This report was published by the Vatican news agency Agenzia Fides on 4 April:
Suva (Agenzia Fides) - At least seven people have died, including a 3-year-old child, and almost 12 000 people displaced due to the flooding caused by the cyclone Daphne that hit the Fiji islands, in the South Pacific According to local sources, the cyclone is currently located 900 km from the affected area and no longer a threat. However, the National Emergency Operations Centre has announced the possibility of heavy rain and further flooding in the western area of Viti Levu, the main island of the archipelago, the most severely affected by the overflowing of rivers. There are 11,994 people who are housed in evacuation centers, while the authorities continue to update the assessment of damages. This past January, heavy rains had caused the deaths of 12 people. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 04/04/2012)
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