Funafuti in ruins; Fiji epidemic feared

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33061, 31 October 1972, Page 2

Funafuti in ruins; Fiji epidemic feared

(From

G. W. WALLIS,

"New Zealand Herald.’* staff reporter, through N.Z.P.A.)

NANDI, October 30. The island of Funafuti, in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, lies in ruins beneath an ashen sky.

Coconut palms, like broken matchsticks, reel among the smashed remains of houses. Hurricane Bebe has spared nothing: crops, homes, machinery, roads —all have been destroyed and only piles of debris are left. Many Islanders are still living beneath sheets of corrugated iron laid between two boxes. Others have roughly roofed a small comer of their ruined homes. Some are living in the former village hall, which has been patched up in a makeshift fashion with sheets of corrugated iron and pieces of timber. Their fishing canoes wrecked and their coconut

palms destroyed, 700 Islanders have lost their traditional food supply completely. But no despondency, no worry, no panic showed on the laughing faces of the Islanders who flocked to the atoll today to greet the second aircraft to touch down since the hurricane struck. As one Islander said with a shrug: “As always, we will wait for the coconuts to grow, we will wait for the fish to bite.”

On three nights after the hurricane, the rain pelted down unceasingly. The women and children huddled together under sheets of corrugated iron. But the men had no shelter. For three nights they sat out in the rain. Today, they did not think it worth talking about. Food has been sent to Funafuti from Tarawa in the neighbouring Gilbert Islands,

and the people are not hungry. But they have a terrible awareness of their own isolation and, above all, a fear of being forgotten. Two radio transmitters, their link with the rest of the world, were wrecked by the storm. Clearing nwded The islands’ moat urgent need now is bulldozers and trucks to knock down and clear away ruins of houses, the heaps of debris, and the tangle of fallen coconut palms which litter the island. Administrators fear that unless something is done quickly, shanties which are now being built among the ruins will become permanent. An R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules today delivered 140 Army tents to the island. From Lautoka, in Fiji, an N.Z.P.A, staff correspondent

reports that thousands of Fijian hurricane victims, their houses gone and their possessions lost, now face the threat of disease.

In the western part of Viti Levu, the main island which bore the full force of hurricane Bebe, water supplies have been fouled, sewage cannot get away, and thousands of homeless are still sheltering in schools and churches. The New Zealand Red Cross relief co-ordinator (Mr R. McKerrow) said today: “This really worries me. It’s just the sort of situation where you could get a major epidemic.” Mr McKerrow, who spent three months working in Bangladesh and a year in Vietnam, says the danger of disease is particularly high where refugees, their resistance lowered, are packed into temporary shelters like they are at Lautoka. Relief needs His fears are echoed by an Australian Roman Catholic p.riest, the Rev. V. Batchelor, of Cohuna, Victoria, who has been going round the badlyhit Ba Valley in a borrowed truck distributing food bought with money he received from selling his car. “The big danger now is disease,” he said. Father Batchelor put the number of homeless at 25,000 at least in the Ba area alone. He estimates that at least 10,000 Fijians and Indians in the area will need Government relief over the next three months. Staple root crops are rotting in the ground after heavy flooding and thousands of victims face starvation unless they receive emergency food supplies quickly. Red Crose workers say they can use all the food they can get from New Zealand and Australia. Two tons of milk powder from the New Zealand Red Cross arrived at Nandi at the week-end and another five tons at Suva by ship today. “Very bad” Food supplies in Ba can last for only another two or three days, Mr McKerrow reported back to Red Cross headquarters in Wellington today. He says the situation in Asawas, in the same area as Ba, is also very bad. The secretary general of the society (Commander M. C. Ashdown) said food supplies were being gathered as quickly as possible, and an airlift to Ba would be mounted as soon as it could be arranged. Price controls The Fiji Government estimates it may have to feed up to 50,000 people for the next six months. The Government has announced strict price controls on all building materials and hardware, some daily products and foodstuffs, footwear, cooking utensils and other items after some businessmen raised prices. The Anglican Board of Missions has already sent $lOOO from its emergency fund to help the hurricane victims. The New Zealand Catholic Overseas Committee has allocated $lOOO to open a national Roman Catholic appeal, to which the Auckland diocese has already given $2OOO. C.0.R.5.0. aid The national executive of C.0.R.5.0. had called an emergency meeting of its council and the groups involved in helping the Fiji group, said its director (the Rev. H. C. Dixon) in Wellington today. “The meeting of interested persons tomorrow will consider what activities in the way of assistance to Fiji are already under way and what areas are still to start,” Mr Dixon said.

“C.0.R.5.0. intends to open a special fund for relief and rehabilitation in Fiji and is inviting donations from all sections of the community. "C.0.R.5.0.’s initial response was to send S2OOQ and five tons of milk powder,” Mr Dixon said.