Cyclone Winston kills six in Fiji, thousands without power

China on Monday provided emergency humanitarian aid of 100,000 US dollars to the Fiji Red Cross Society, becoming the first country to do so in the aftermath of severe tropical cyclone Winston that has claimed at least 20 lives, the Fiji Red Cross Society’s top official said.

The category five super-storm lashed the popular tourist destination overnight Saturday, packing wind gusts approaching 300 kilometres (185 miles) per hour, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

Mr Perrin said most of the people who died in the cyclone were hit by flying debris or were in buildings which collapsed. “We weren’t that badly damaged, just a few panels flew off the house”, he said. It gave no figures for the country’s three other divisions. Crews on the boat would build temporary shelters for those people on the island whose homes had been destroyed.

She said there was foliage everywhere, which looks like it has been put through a blender. The Fiji Times newspaper reported that some homes had had their roofs blown away and that five people had managed to swim to safety after their boat capsized. About 80 percent of the Pacific Island nation’s residents remained without regular electricity through Sunday although generators are available in some areas.

He said priorities were restoring power and repairing damaged homes, as well as maintaining drinking water supplies in the evacuation centres.

The government declared a 30-day state of emergency, including school closures for at least a week, amid concerns of flash flooding and mudslides.

Relief efforts will continue on Monday after unrelenting rain and downed power lines hampered officials trying to assess the damage caused by one of the southern hemisphere’s most powerful cyclones on record.

“Families may have lost their homes and crops, therefore leaving them without shelter, food and a livelihood”.

Fiji also reopened its main airport at Nadi.

The storm, moved westward after hitting Viti Levu, in the north of the islands, and changed direction as it approached the capital Suva.

The military cancelled all leave and mobilised troops for the relief effort.

Oxfam’s Pacific regional director Raijeli Nicole said the scale of the disaster would only become apparent when communications were restored with remote communities.

“There’s been a very well-coordinated disaster response and we’re deploying quickly”.

Authorities were still having trouble communicating with some islands, including places like Koro Island which suffered some of the worst damage. “I can’t imagine what it was like for the people up the northern end of the island where the cyclone made landfall”.