Nadi town which is also known as the tourist town or the jet set town is today looking like a Ghost Town, with extensive damages to shops and infrastructure in the area, and residential areas badly hit, agricultural crops destroyed after the continuous flooding from last Thursday.
According to the Nadi Town Council, the damages are definitely more than $100 million and counting.
This natural disaster which is now being rated as the worst ever did not just affect the town once but at least three times within a period of six days, when flood waters rose late Thursday night, then again on Saturday and when people thought that it was all over, the raging flood waters hit again from Tuesday.
A number of residents living in the urban and rural areas of Nadi have been severely affected.
Some have lost everything as we continue to receive reports about several household items including stoves and settees found in cane fields.
Some still do not have anything of enough to eat or drink, the poorly constructed homes in the rural areas have been completely destroyed with nothing left for their owners to return to.
Workers who live on wages of 40 to 60 dollars a week, those who live week by week on the money they receive have nothing left and are living with the hope that help is on the way.
These people are not in evacuation centres but are just affected by the natural disaster that has struck us since last week.
And to make things worse for those people who have children, school is starting within the next 11 days.
For these people, it will now come down to firstly providing the basic needs and that is food, water and shelter before education comes into the picture.
Nadi Mayor Timoci Koroiqica said he has tears in his eyes when he moves around Nadi, a place which has had so much progress and development over the years and everything is now lost.
Koroiqica said Nadi businesses have been badly affected with all the show glasses smashed and everything in the shops damaged.
For families who have been severely affected and lost all their household items and valuables, they have to start from scratch as there is no protection as homes are not covered for flood insurance.
The Nadi Mayor describes the scene in the residential areas of Nadi.
Many roads in Nadi have been severely damaged as the costs to repair the infrastructure will run into millions of dollars.
Businessmen in Nadi are fed up with the slow reaction from authorities in restoring the supply of electricity and water in Nadi Town.
Dinesh Pillay said the lack of power and water is adding on to the already difficult time they are facing.
He added the Nadi Chamber of Commerce is calling an emergency meeting tomorrow so that those affected can air their grievances.
Former Senator, Ponipate Lesavua said people will be in tears to see the difficulties the people of Nadi are facing in trying to put food on the table to feed their families on a day to day basis.
Lesavua who lives in Nawaka village said with the damages by the flash flooding to the farms in Nadi, by next week there will be no more food available for them to rely on.
He added that it was sad to see in Nadi town on Tuesday when damaged goods were being picked up by people and taken home for their families.
Lesavua confirms that more than 10 houses in the settlement next to Nawaka were washed away by floods while more than 300 houses were flooded and it will take a month to try and wash away the mud and clear the debris.
Feature
Damages More Than $100M in Nadi
