Maca Recalls Day Tropical Cyclone Winston Hit Nasau
Forty-year-old Nagado, Nadi native, Carol Maca, who married into Nasau Village still lives with her husband and five-year-old child in a makeshift leanto shelter.
Ms Maca will never forget the events of February 20, 2016 when Tropical Cyclone Winston hit Koro Island decimating almost everything in its path.
At that time she lived by the beach with her family in a cement house a few metres outside Nasau Village.
On Friday the day before the cyclone hit, Ms Maca and her family went to Nasau to attend a gathering.
They were going to sleep in the village after the gathering and return home the next day.
Things did not eventuate as planned. When she woke up the next morning cyclone winds had already picked up.
“When we woke up on Saturday morning there were strong winds so the family where we had slept the night before told us not to go home because there was word that there was going to be a hurricane,” Ms Maca said. “So, we stayed on Saturday and Sunday before returning home. That morning my husband went home to nail plywood to cover the windows of our house.
“While he was doing this, he heard the sound of wood that had slammed the side of our house. When he looked out, he saw all the trees were uprooted.”
Ms Maca described the event as the most terrifying experiences of her life and she will never forget the sound of cries from children and women as they took cover and prayed.
“We actually saw roofing iron from the school flying over the village,” she said. “The door of the house we were in, which faced the sea, was ripped from its hinges. “When we wanted to open the door facing the road, waves came crashing in.”
Ms Maca and her family survived the ordeal by going uphill to another house where they weathered the storm with a few other families.
Children were placed in a small room of a house that still had a roof.
“All we could hear was the sound of children crying which made us cry too,” she said.
Even though they now live in a small makeshift temporary shelter, life goes on as normal for Ms Maca’s family until they move into their permanent home soon.