State Of Natural Disaster Declared For Next 30 Days
NDMO is co-ordinating with development partners to provide support and they have held donor meetings to provide them with information and updates.
Friday 18 December 2020 | 09:18
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama visiting one of the many evacuation centres in Nasinu on December 17, 2020. Photo: Office of the Prime Minister
A State of Natural Disaster has been declared for Fiji for the next 30 days.
Soon after the declaration Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama labelled it a ‘climate emergency’ adding that yesterday’s date in 2012, Fiji was enduring Cyclone Evan.
Since then, he said Fiji has been battered by 12 more cyclones - two of which (Winston and Yasa) are now jockeying for our hemisphere’s strongest-ever storm in history.
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“This is not normal. This is a climate emergency,” Mr Bainimarama said.
850,000 people are expected to be affected by the cyclone.
Curfew
During the weather update yesterday, Director National Disaster Management Office, Vasiti Soko, said Government would review the extended nationwide 4pm to 6am curfew daily.
She said as of Wednesday December 16th Tropical Cyclone Yasa was declared a natural disaster under the Natural Disaster Management Act of 1998.
The declaration is in place for the next 30 days and will put into effect regulations allowing NDMO to mobilise whole of Government assets to be on standby.
With the current projected cyclone path from the Fiji Meteorological Service, Ms Soko is advising people to take precautions and move to evacuation centres, if need be.
As of 8am yesterday a total of 53 evacuation centres were opened, with the Fiji Police Force providing security.
And for safety purpose, occupants of the Golden Age Home were relocated to the Disability Facility at Brown Street.
NDMO is co-ordinating with development partners to provide support and they have held donor meetings to provide them with information and updates.
“We ask the public to store water to last five to seven days. For any landslide please wait for the relevant authorities or call the nearest Police station,” she said.
“For those living in coastal areas the Government is pleading with you to move up land. We are expecting storm surges with waves up to 16 metres.”
Fijians are advised to call the Police if they need assistance to move or contact the divisional commissioner’s emergency operations centre.
“With regards to evacuation centres and compliance with COVID-19 requirements prior to the cyclone all evacuations were inspected. We are also mindful that there are no community transmissions. Now our priority is to ensure that lives are not lost,” Ms Soko said.
“It’s not the mandate of the health officials to be present at the evacuation centre. For us our focus is protection. Police will be there to ensure that.”
No casualties have been recorded from the evacuation centres so far.
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