A man who was rescued by the villagers in Qamea Island during the landslide says he is lucky to be alive.

Timoci Moceiseqaqa, 34, said he was sleeping when the incident happened at around 5pm during Tropical Depression 04F.

“My wife woke me up saying that the water has entered our house. I went out to check and all I saw was my compound buried with soil.

“I changed my clothes, went outside and started digging as it was also entering our house.”

He said that he was digging for almost two hours before he went back inside the house because of the cold.

“The soil keep piling up outside as the landslide continued.

“I knew that we couldn’t stop what was happening, so I told my wife to pack our clothes as we needed to move to another house.”

“I was in the kitchen while my wife was packing our stuff,” he said.

They have a separate kitchen which was one step away from the house.

“Before we moved, I heard the rumbling sound from a distance. I called out to my wife and children to move out of the house but we were all late as the earth-flow happened so fast,” he said.

Their house collapsed and that was how he was separated from his family.

He has three children, two girls, age 14 and seven and a son, age four.

“My wife and daughters managed to get out of the house but my son was still inside covered by the wreckage of my house, at the same time, I was also buried by the rubble and was trying to crawl out.”

His wife and the two girls were traumatised and they were crying with fear.

“They were searching for my son and they heard a cry from beneath those wreckage.

“They followed the voice and saw him hidden under the bed which was covered with sheets of corrugated iron that collapsed from the roof, they had to pull him out,” he said.

“I also managed to save myself and crawled out. My legs and arm was badly injured.”

“I did not know that I was injured, I tried to stand and run but I couldn’t, I kept falling.”

He said he was calling for help and three villagers heard his cry and saved him.”

“All I cared about was to make sure that my wife and children were alive,” said Mr Moceiseqaqa.

He was rushed to the hospital and is still admitted at Labasa hospital.

“I am so thankful that we are all alive,” he said.

“At the moment I can’t walk and I am praying that God will heal me.”

“I don’t know where to start from here as I’ve been in the hospital for over two weeks now.”

Mr Moceiseqaqa added that he is still thinking of where to get money from for his eldest daughter who will be in Year 9 this year.

“My eldest daughter will be in Year 9 this year and I need to prepare her for school. She is enrolled at Bucalevu Secondary School.”

His wife and children will return to Qamea Island as school will be resuming next week, he said.

“We were really fortunate that the landslide happened during the day, if it happened in the night then we would all be dead,” he said.

Mr Moceiseqaqa and his wife are both working at the Matagi Island Resort.