Ben Feb 5 07
From Tribewanted
Just back online for first time since Saturday - power/internet connection in Labasa is intermitent, so apologies to anyone who was expecting to hear from me over the past 24 hours but we've been stranded/without power.
Hurricane was interesting - eye of the storm over north west Labasa (us) for about 8 hours on Sunday afternoon/evening. No real warning, just heavy rain then within a couple of hours very strong winds.
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. I thanked Api with a minature of Grants Scottish Whisky. Just what you need after a day battling a hurricane.
Lots of cleaning up work to be done with the Mali gang have started already and we should be back there later today.
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 HURRICANE 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. Hopefully will still get the bamboo by end of the week.
Hurricane put a good perspective on things for me and the project. Reminded me of the real challenges we face as well as the virtual ones. Two coconuts dropping a couple of feet from me as I ran through the storm certainly wakes you up!
Photos and Wildgeeza's blog are here: Wildgeeza blog
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