One person has died, and five, including a three-year-old boy, are still missing after Cyclone Ana hit Fiji on Sunday, just over a month after Cyclone Yasa in Category 5 broke through the country’s northern islands.
Two more cyclones are already forming off the coast of Fiji, and the cyclone season has three more months to go.
More than 10,000 people remain in emergency evacuation centers after torrential rains and strong winds that have caused severe flooding and widespread damage to buildings, crops and public infrastructure.
Most of the country has been without electricity since Sunday, and there have also been reports of widespread water outages.
Police were seen patrolling the city center on fiberglass boats as heavy rain, along with high tides, overwhelmed drainage systems. Officers rescued two babies after a tree fell on the house where they were sheltering.
“Tropical Cyclone Ana, the second in a month, is leaving Fiji – leaving behind a difficult recovery,” said Fiji Ambassador to the United Nations Satyendra Prasad.
“On a personal note, for the first time in our family’s history, boats sailed down the street to my mother’s home for rescue. We have lived here since 1921. Fiji will be rebuilt. ”
Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, extremely open about the impact of climate change on the Pacific islands, said that “forecasts put another potential cyclone on the heels of TC Ana … that would be three storms hitting Fiji in just over a month”.
“Today, my priority is the safety of Fijians – but the rest of the world needs to wake up and take into account what is happening.”
The Fiji government announced on Saturday a period of 36 hours before the cyclone, but reversed the decision after strong public criticism on social networks. The country had to comply with a daily shutdown since March 19, when it announced the first case confirmed by Covid-19.
A three-year-old boy disappeared near Lautoka, on the island of Viti Levu, after he went with his grandfather to check a boat stuck in the mangroves.
The number of causalities is expected to increase as authorities conduct damage assessments and reach isolated areas cut off by floodwaters in the coming days.
The National Disaster Management Bureau said 10,259 people are taking refuge in 318 evacuation centers across the country, with 5,776 in Fiji’s northern division, which has been hit hard by TC Yasa.
Schools have been closed since Friday, with many serving as evacuation centers, but businesses and public transport in Suva have been allowed to open today.
By Sunday evening, when TC Ana slowly emerged from Fiji, two more cyclones had formed, with Category 1 TC Bina approaching from the northwest of the country and TC Lucas west of the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia.
TC Bina has since been demoted by the Fiji Meteorological Bureau into a tropical depression, while TC Lucas is not an immediate threat to the Fijian archipelago.
There are three months left before the end of the Fiji cyclone season, which runs from November to April.