This month has been largely dominated by the weather.
Our lives here in Fiji have been upturned by rain. The January floods were noted as being the worst in years, but then the rain came again in April.
It rained non-stop and especially the western part (where we are) of Fiji , got the full brunt of the rain.
One low pressure system followed each other and then the already saturated soil just could not hold the water anymore.
Basically all the towns in Fiji have been flooded. Ba, Sigatoka, Navua, Tavua, Lautoka.....
Evacuation centres sprung up like mushrooms and the number of homeless people rose to the thousands.
People were caught unawares by rapidly rising floodwaters and areas that have never been flooded before, were covered under water.....
This is an aerial shot of Nadi town and surrounding areas. It is the tourist mecca of Fiji. The area has farm lands, the international airport....
Local inhabitants and tourists were evacuated from low lying areas , roads were under water and towns were cut off from each other.
It is now weeks after the rain, but cleaning up operations are still underway.
Fields are still flooded....
Our own farm is flooded....drains that should have been opened over the years, before we had the farm, have not been cleared and the water rushed over our land, flooded our newly made roadway, washed away the seedling beds that had 10 day seedlings....cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, pawpaw, cucumber, pumpkin....
All washed away .
I , however look at the photos of the devastation and damage to infrastructure and homes and lives all around us, and then the little losses that we had on the farm, seem insignificant compared to those of others...
More photos and faces of the floods can be viewed on the Facebook page of Fiji Ministry of Information.
