Rain and thunderstorms will continue over the next few days, says Fiji Metereological Centre Director Terry Atalifo.

“There’s a difference of course with the European Numerical Weather Model that predicts that the bad weather will start on Thursday.

“The other models are saying that it will start on Friday to Saturday due to convergence zone between Vanuatu and New Caledonia,” he said.

He said a depression may form into a cyclone on Friday however the specific areas it will hit remains undetermined.

“With the European Numerical Weather Model it’s basically a low cast system and it will develop into a depression over the Fiji Group from Thursday to Friday,” he said.

“The Northern Division will experience the worst of the convergence. That will mean heavy rain and strong winds.”

He said the current prediction showed depression would remain to the West however the key message was that bad weather conditions would be expected over the weekend until Sunday.

Municipality preparations

Tavua Town Council chief executive officer Praveen Prakash said rural and town areas were flooded on Monday.

“During the day it’s sunny but around 4pm it starts raining heavily. On Monday, it rained heavily for two hours. We will be on the look-out if the situation worsens,” she said .

Ba Town Council chief executive officer Priya Singh said heavy rain and flooding was experienced on Monday in areas such as Veisaru.

“We’ve started telling vendors to lower their stock volume as we might need to evacuate them and we may meet with NDMO today but I’ll have to check with the district officer,” she said.

The Divisional Police Commander West Senior Superintendent of Police Sami Surend said the situation was being monitored.

“We’re still monitoring the situation but we’ve got strategies in place and if we get the advisory from Fiji Met then we’ll activate our teams,” he said.

Attempts to get comments from the Lautoka City Council chief executive officer Mohammed Aness Khan were not available when this edition went to press.

Nadi businesses

In the West, where the rains has not seemed to calm down, businesses in flood-prone areas were bracing themselves for the worst.

Nadi businesswoman and widow, Nadirul Nisha, 57 who owns the Leeds Prabhasni Dair Shop in Nawaka has experienced multiple floods and cyclones.

She has been running the shop for the last 25 years.

Owner of Ram Bhajo Supermarket Shalendra Prasad said floods compared to cyclones were different.

“For floods we know what to expect but for cyclones it is totally different,” said Prasad.

“We always prepare our shop according to the tides because this is a flood prone area.”

Mr Prasad has also shared space with carwash owner Navin Kumar and upholstery owner Parmendra Prasad.

Edited by Ranoba Baoa

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