Vorovoro tribewanted survived the storms

from w

From chief’s blog
DAMAGE ON VOROVORO

A lot of trees have fallen on the island but there is no structural damage. All tribal handywork so far stood the test and the Great Bure shrugged it off like a fijian rugby player side-stepping his opponent. Kitchen flooded but we were able to rescue everything.

Boats were pulled to safety apart from blue boat but it survived the pummelling.
Pontoon for jetty took a heroic effort from Api to save, but it was saved. Some of the jetty walkway has been lost.

Island now clear after good weeks work. Big water tank is full!

DAMAGE TO SURROUNDING AREA

Labasa seems to be much more of a mess. The river burst its banks and the high street was flooded up to the level of ground floor windows. The whole town is covered in mud. It looks like a disaster zone. The Grand Eastern is a big mud bath and we're lucky our office is on the first floor, otherwise all our gear would have gone. Flights in and out of Labasa operating as normal.

IMPACTS OF CYCLONE ON PROJECT

There is going to be no problem staying on Vorovoro as infrastructure is fine. It is going to put the project work back a couple of weeks though as material orders from local saw mill will be put on hold as it was flooded.

Wildgreeza from tribewanted has lots of photos and anecdotes about Vorovoro during Christmas and New Year and the recent storm which he called a cyclone. Two of his pics I have posted here show a view of a part of Labasa taken from a plane, and coconut trees bending in the wind.