Food shortage looms in Fiji after second cyclone

Transcript

Villagers in Fiji's remote Lau group say they are expecting food shortages in the wake of Cyclone Winston.

The storm passed by the island group early this morning severely damaging food gardens and coconut plantations as well as some houses.

The manager of a school in Doi Village on Ono I Lau says the impact of Winston was worse than Cyclone Ula which affected the island group last month.

Emosi Yabaki told Koroi Hawkins Ula which struck the island from the northeast damaged most of the food gardens on one side of the island while Winston, which came from the southwest, destroyed gardens on the other side.

EMOSI YABAKI: It developed late in the afternoon at about six o clock we could feel the wind it was much stronger than the hurricane last month.

KOROI HAWKINS: So you feel it was stronger than Ula?

EY: Right yeah

KH: And how do you compare, why, what makes you say that it was stronger?

EY: It was stronger because it came on the direction that it was, the village and the school was directly in the path where the wind was coming from it was between South and South West something like that. So the village is situated and the school situated directly where the wind was coming from.

KH: And what damages have you incurred in the village or at the school?

EY: In the school it is only the school toilets and the trees around the school compound. But in the village, the same thing some of the rooftops in the kitchen and in the toilets but in the garden mostly the things damaged are the root crops.

KH: How much of your root crops or the root crops in the village have been damaged, a lot or just a little bit or will it be quite a situation in terms of food in the weeks and months ahead?

EY: No I think now it is a lot, because the ULA did some damage, about 50 percent damage that is what Ula did and then Ula came in different direction the wind and then Winston came in the opposite direction. So the root crops have been twisted and as I came this morning to the school I saw some of the root crops have been uprooted and then the bananas all down.

KH: What kind of things will the school and villagers be needing in the weeks ahead coming up and what might you be asking for in terms of supplies or relief?

EY: Food, like Ula the government came to assist us immediately after Ula left we were supplied with the rations and that is what we are hoping to get from government. In terms of food because you are relying mostly on the food that we got from the garden the root crops and since Ula left it has left with some damages and now Winston came and did the rest. The coconuts most of the coconuts are on the ground and people rely on the coconuts for cash.