Sunday, February 12, 2006

Big flood at Vatuadova, Labasa

From Peceli

This morning I received an e-mail from my daughter Ateca regarding the big flood at Vatuadova that caused much damage last week. She said that it was the biggest flood since the family started the settlement in the 1960s.

It came through the night and took away two pigs from the piggery beside the river, half of Ateca's sugar cane plantation on the other side of the river and a newly planted citrus orchid of lemon, mandarin and orange trees. The houses of the Vatuadova village is on a rise so was not reached by the flooded river.

Vatuadova river comes from the mountains and is shaped like a snake when viewed from an aeroplane. It is a narrow, shallow river most of the time. This time the water was so high that no vehicles could cross the bridge in front of the village.

The loss and damages will need to be assessed by some government authority and perhaps the Agriculture Department may give some replacement citrus trees. The main thing is of course that no-one was hurt because there are so many young children at the village.

2 comments:

MoeJas said...

My aunt lives up in Balekula, near Nakorotari. Her house was washed away in the river. She lost everything. Its so sad. We are collecting money out here in USA and will send it to the victims of this flood.

Peceli and Wendy's Blog said...

Bula si'a Moe and Jas,
Yes, it's very sad. People live near the rivers and they flood periodically. In the towns, the drainage could be better, but upriver they can't do much. We are sending a container from Geelong as soon as possible but the Donation in Kind have three others to fill first for other projects.
Nice pic on your website!
w.