More on Cyclone Gita from Southern Lau
He sought refuge at the Onolevu District School only to witness the cyclone tear down his house.
Ayear seven and eight teacher of Onolevu District School has labelled Tropical Cyclone Gita as the worst storm he had experienced.
Sekope Veisa of Motokana Village, Ono-i-Lau, watched the full wrath of cyclone Gita and prayed solemnly at the school he found refuge in. Mr Veisa, 28, had just entered Onolevu District School to seek refuge, and then witness his house being knocked off its foundation by the category 4 cyclone. Although he lost a roof over his head, he was thankful he survived mother nature’s wrath.
“I have never met a strong wind like this one, which has caused much damage on this island,” Mr Veisa said.
“Most of the strong houses were taken down by TC Gita. There are three houses completely destroyed on this island.
“What was mostly affected on this island is our plantation, which we rely on for food. “Everything else is okay apart from the three houses that I mentioned, which were completely destroyed by TC Gita.
“I thought the category four cyclone travelling at 290km/per hour would kill us all.
“It was a very dangerous situation for about 12 hours with roofing iron flying around and large trees blown “All of the homes on the island survived Tropical Cyclone Ula, but they could not survive this cyclone,” he said.
He said his electronic appliances and books were damaged by TC Gita.
“I managed to recover a few items of mine, however, my books and electric appliances- rice cooker and microwave did not survive TC Gita,” he said.
“At the moment, I am sharing a flat with a teacher.”
Mr Veisa and a few other men stayed up all night to make sure that the women and children at the evacuation centre were safe. “We made sure that women and children in this village slept well at the evacuation centre,” he said. “Also to make sure that there is enough drinking water and other necessities that the women and children would need during a disaster,” he said.
There are four villages on Ono-iLau – Motokana, Nukuni, Lovoni and Doi.