AUSTRALIAN holidaymakers were still trapped in resorts around Nadi, western Fiji, yesterday, but their plight was nothing compared with the crisis affecting the rest of the country.
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A week after the rain set in, the death toll rose to 11 when a boy, 4, died after falling into water raging around his house. A man, 20, was swept away, and a woman, 35, was missing after a landslide.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Federal Government was discussing with Air Pacific, Qantas and Pacific Blue the possibility of further relief flights.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, said Australian officials were discussing assistance with Fijian authorities.
Discussions centred on "how Australia can best provide further assistance to the people of Fiji affected by this major natural disaster", Mr Smith said.
But for locals there was little time for discussion. About 9000 Fijians had been displaced yesterday, and damage to roads and other infrastructure was put at about $20million. Evacuees huddled in centres while relief vehicles battled to get past blocked roads and landslides to deliver food and fresh water.
The National Fire Authority evacuated 33 families from Bouma Village and took them to Labasa Civic Centre on the main island of Viti Levu. Twenty-two families from Namara Village were evacuated as the Labasa River flooded, bringing the total number of evacuees in Labasa to 197 adults and 198 children.
A group of 30 people, including a baby, left the island of Gau in an effort to reach Suva, but their boat broke down and rescuers were unable to reach them because of rough seas.
The Nasavu River broke its banks at midnight on Tuesday, flooding nearby villages.
"The waters just suddenly rose and we just left our homes which got flooded with about five feet [1.5 metres] of water," a villager, Sakiusa Batikoula, told The Fiji Times . "It was raining heavily yet we could only grab a few clothes and pillows."
In Tavua police and fishing boats helped evacuate more than 500 people as the water level rose to two metres, flooding villages and killing livestock. Root crops the evacuees took with them had started to rot and women began collecting chestnuts or fruit that floated past.
The Nabuna Village head, Waisake Semi, said the evacuees had "nothing but the clothes on our backs".
At Sigatoka, between Nadi and Suva, 260 people from Sigatoka and Yavulo sheltered at the evacuation centre at Sigatoka District School.
