Workers scrambled to reach hard-hit outer islands
in Fiji on Monday to fully assess the scope of the
devastating cyclone that struck the Pacific Island
nation over the weekend, killing at least 20 people.
Tropical Cyclone Winston, which lashed Fiji on
Saturday night, is the most powerful storm on
record in the Southern Hemisphere, authorities
said.
The destruction was apparent wherever one looked:
Giant uprooted trees resting upside down on roads.
Houses with their tin roofs torn off. Residents
packing up whatever belongings they could salvage
from their destroyed homes.
"There are Fijians out there who are without water,
without a roof over their heads, without food and
without essential services," Prime Minister Frank
Bainimarama said.
Compounding the challenge for relief workers are
power outages, fallen phone lines and road blocks.
"Winston was a monster of a cyclone," Fiji resident
Nazeem Kasim told CNN. "I have not experienced
anything like this before in my life, nor has my 60-
year-old father."
Monster storm
Winds reached 296 kilometers per hour (184 mph),
the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported.
Had it occurred in the Atlantic, Winston would have
been a Category 5 hurricane, but because of
hemispheric nomenclature, it's called a cyclone. (In
the Northwest Pacific, it would be a typhoon; all
three are the same weather phenomenon.)
Officials shuttered schools until next Monday, using
the buildings as shelters for the hundreds the storm
left homeless.
A curfew that the government had put in place was
lifted Monday. Still, residents were asked to limit
their movements as mush as possible.
Challenges await
Fiji, an archipelago collectively about the size of
New Jersey, lies in the South Pacific Ocean some
1,800 miles from Australia's east coast.
Most of the nation's 900,000 residents live on one
of two main islands: Viti Levu or Vanua Levu. But
the nation is comprised of more than 100 inhabited
islands.
"It is likely that smaller villages across Fiji will have
suffered the most, given their infrastructures would
be too weak to withstand the power of a category 5
cyclone," said Suva resident Alice Clements, a
spokeswoman for UNICEF in the Pacific.
"Families may have lost their homes and crops,
therefore leaving them without shelter, food and a
livelihood."
Howling winds
Although not hit directly, the capital, Suva, endured
damaging gale-force winds, heavy rain and power
outages. Clements, who was in Suva when the
storm struck, said the city experienced
"destructive, howling winds, and the sound of rivets
lifting from roofs a constant throughout the night."
Jaisal Patel posted a video from Suva of electrical
power lines exploding one after another.
"We were without power from 7pm local time
Saturday and just got power back an hour ago,"
Patel said Monday.
The nation is a popular tourist destination. Those
who were in the country are safe, said Tourism
Minister Faiyaz Siddiq Koya. Now that the main
airport has reopened, the ministry will prioritize
their departure if they want to leave.
Record setting
Winston's 184-mph winds smashed the previous
record for a Southern Hemisphere cyclone. The old
record of 178 mph was shared by Cyclone Zoe,
which battered the Solomon Islands in 2002, and
Cyclone Monica, which walloped Australia in 2006,
according to Colorado State University hurricane
expert Philip Klotzbach.
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