As Rakiraki cleans up, chiefs and mothers are calling for help

Transcript

Chiefs and families in the province of Ra in Fiji's western division are walking to Rakiraki town to ask for help.

As more stories of survival emerge, frustration is creeping in as mothers who have taken their children to the evacuation centres say they are waiting for food.

While local authorities are coordinating recovery efforts and recording data, there's still no word on when aid will arrive.

Alex Perrottet reports from Rakiraki.

Workers are cutting a huge tree that has fallen down in the centre of Vaileka - the shopping hub of Rakiraki.

They are prisoners from Lautoka, now employed for an indefinite time to re-beautify this country.

Their supervisor, Lepani Tuikenawa says they all have good behaviour reports.

"LEPANI TUIKENAWA: All of them have gone through programmes for reputation. That's why they've come here. They have proven themselves that they can have access to the public."

Nearby, two bulldozers scrape up the remains of the market. Wood and glass are intermingled with fruit and vegetable.

A lady approaches. Her name is Vatiseva Naba. She says her house is gone and there's nothing left. She has arrived in town to ask for help.

"VATISEA NABA: We need tarpaulins and we need a real house. Because last night and the other nights after the cyclone has left us, the rain comes right from heaven right onto our house. We are sleeping on to leftover beds without any matresses and we still get the rain.

ALEX PERROTTET: And who are you going to for help?

VN: I am going to seek assistance from APA, from the Assistant Provincial Administrator.

AP: And where is he?

VN: He must be at Vaileka house. Somewhere there, or anywhere. If not I will go to his home. I really need help at the moment."

The Provincial Administrator doesn't want to talk. He refers us to the CEO of the Rakiraki Town Council, Rakesh Chandra, who says evacuation centres are overcrowded, there's five or six thousand people to accommodate, and water is rationed.

Mr Chandra says his priority is to clean up the town so people can come in and get supplies safely. And he says its the government that should be providing tarpaulins and shelter.

Usaia Rawaidranu is the Turaga ni Koro, or chief of Namuiamada village and three other villages.

He has come to Rakiraki to say 90 per cent of the houses are gone.

"USAIA RAWAIDRANU: Plenty of my population now they can't sleep. I have got only six houses in my village. My population is 544. We all fit in the six houses. Somebody sleeps, somebody is standing up. That is the condition we have now."

Mr Rawaidranu says he can't wait for the government and agencies to arrive. He needs help now.

USAIA RAWAIDRANU: "Government, maybe tomorrow, next month or whatever. So I talked to my people and said don't wait for the government, we do our own. If the government come, ok, if they don't we do our own."

On the road we come across Evelene Nabure, standing on a platform, it seemed. It's the floor of what was her house.

"EVELENE NABURE: I was in this house my whole family. Myself, my husband and my son. And the roof iron started to go off from here, the roof irons. And then the walls. So I went to the other side of the road, my cousin's husband staying there so we stayed there."

Evelene says her husband and other men have built and built for five years and it was all gone in seconds. She says right now they need food, water and shelter. They are staying at an evacuation centre.

At the Penang Sangam High School, which has become an evacuation centre for eight families, it's washing day.

Miliakere Dakuitoga says they are thankful to be alive, and everyone is trying to help each other.

"MILIAKERE DAKUITOGA: We are just trying to help each other with food and water. Since governments not that quick, so we just helping each other with whatever we have."

Not everyone was as lucky however. Eight people died in Rakiraki and Hemant Chand, the local funeral director, buried six of them immediately. He says with power down there was no other option.

"HEMANT CHAND: Laid them out in the hospital, it is not very well maintained, it is not very big. Can only accomodate about six people. So when more than six people die the families have to take their bodies."

Hemant Chand says he was extra sensitive with the families and gave significant discounts.

Twenty minutes along the road around the north coast is the Ra Maternity Hospital. An information board at the town council had it listed under 'completely damaged'.

It's run by the Catholic Church, with the government providing a staff nurse and paying for medicine.

The nurse Miriama Baroka says everyone was evacuated when the winds became too strong and they sheltered in the staff quarters.

But that building looks almost crushed. It must have been horrifying.

"MIRIAMA BAROKA: The delivery theatre was badly damaged.

AP: And there's a roof missing on the next building?

MB: Yes our nun's quarters.

AP: That's the nun's quarters? So where are they staying now?

MB: We are staying here in the hospital for the time being.

AP: And what about the patients? How many patients do you have?

MB: So far we are just attending to ourpatients coming for cuts returning. Just last night we had one delivery, one baby."

The mother is 22 year old Ana Ravoka - and hers is the first baby born here since the cyclone. At first they called her Baby Winston, but being a girl, mum is thinking Philomena might be more appropriate.

There's months of work here in Ra, and in all of Fiji, but a smiling first time mother and a brand new baby is the healthiest sign of hope, for a country that needs it badly.