DEVASTATION OF VILLAGES, CROPS IN FIJI HURRICANE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22816, 10 December 1948, Page 5

DEVASTATION OF VILLAGES, CROPS IN FIJI HURRICANE

(10 a.m.) SUVA, Dec. 9. Destruction amounting to devastation at some points has been left by the hurricane which, after roaring over Rotuma on Monday, has swept round the eastern islands of Fiji and is now almost stationary in the far south-east in the direction of Tonga. The first estimates of the damage in Taveuni and Lau, two of Fiji’s richest coconut areas, range from 20 per cent loss of the 1949 copra crop to 60 per cent. Several large European plantations on Taveuni put the loss at 50 per cent. Lau Group Severely Hit The beautiful islands of the Lau Group have suffered terribly. In some Fijian villages almost every house has been flattened, food crops destroyed and coconut palm groves levelled. At the Fijian Magistrate's Office at Lomaloma on the Island of Vanuambalavu only the safe and a typewriter were salvaged from the wreckage. The captain of the Burns Philp Company ship, Yanawai, now returning to Suva from Rotuma, has wirelessed that the damage there is very severe. All jetties have been demolished and towing launches and barges are temporarily out of commission. No hurricane casualties are reported from any of the Fijian islands affected. This is probably due to the accuracy of the meteorological forecasts which have been broadcast from Suva at frequent intervals and resulted in the Government's comprehensive warning system coming into action throughout the entire group. Transmitter Out of Action Several transmitters in the Lau Islands were put out of action early in the storm and no news has yet been received from those points. 1 When the mast of the transmitter at Lomaloma was blown away, a European trader who is also an operator, hooked the loose end of the aerial to the mast of a cutter which had been blown well up the beach and then reported “the cutter was comfortable on soft sand. It v/ill be no trouble to refloat her tomorrow.”

All emergency warnings have now been lifted throughout Fiji. The Secretary of State for the Colonies cabled Suva today expressing sympathy with all who have suffered loss in the hurricane.