Tropical Cyclone Winston

I am not sure when we really knew that Tropical Cyclone Winston (TC Winston) was going to be hitting Fiji, but I became acutely more aware of the imminent threat on Friday morning.  I was at school/work trying to tie a few things up for the week ahead when I started to realize that we may not even have school in the week ahead.   The principal sent out an email advising all staff to leave when the students left so they could go home and prepare their home for the storm.  I let some friends from home know that the cyclone was coming and it looked like a category 4 (which later increased to a category 5).   They gave me honest reactions...but definitely made the whole thing seem a lot more real.  Everyone surrounding me (minus Warren) seemed relaxed about the whole thing...but my friends and family from home were really freaked out.  They said I should evacuate...but all planes were grounded so that was not an option (don't think I would have anyway).   I felt so weird because my people at home were terrified and my people in Suva were relaxed.   Everyone here kept reassuring me, "We have nice, strong houses.  We don't need to worry about us....we should worry about the villages and settlements.  We are fine."   I finally got into the mindset that as long as the four of us were safe and together....that it didn't matter if our roof flew off.  It didn't matter what we lost materially....just so long as we were safe.  I got some good advice from friends and just got into major prep mode (shopping, filling bathtubs, moving furniture, etc).   I really felt ok because I knew we'd be ok.    I even felt prepared enough to go over to Wendy's house after school for afternoon tea. From there the girls begged us for a sleepover....so I was excited to leave the girls there and have an evening with Warren to ourselves.  I had no idea how stressed he was at that point.   (Side note- our friend's hurricane experienced parents told them to tie their small children to them with rope.  Literally, they wanted them to buy rope and tie their ankles to their children's ankles.  Thank goodness I didn't hear that before the cyclone because that would have completely thrown me over the edge!)

Warren came home around 7:30 after a crazy day of cyclone prep at the office.  He is now acting country director so it is HIS responsibility that all volunteers are safe.  To say he was in full on work mode is an understatement.  We had plans to go to dinner and it quickly became obvious that those plans would not happen.   Soon after he got home from work, TC Winston's predicted track changed to come straight for Suva and moved from a category 4 to a category 5.   Yikes.   We both got freaked out. Where would we all sleep?  Every room has windows! We decided to stay at Tricia and Nicola's place as they have a great basement and all windows were boarded.  (Because our windows have grids, there were no boards).   I felt so much better knowing we would be with friends and in a safe house.  Warren couldn't relax yet as he still had the volunteers to look after.   He had to make A LOT of arrangements to move volunteers around and ended up only sleeping maybe 3 hours that night. He woke me up at 5:30 advising me against going on my long run and instead staying home to pack up everything so we could get to our friends' house early.  He was worried that traveling on the roads could be difficult and just wanted us all settled before the storm hit.   

He went into work by 7 am to further sort things out while I finished packing everything for a week's worth time just in case we couldn't get back to our house easily.  As soon as I was ready I went to Wendy's house to pick up our kids.  We did a workout since we missed the run and then prepped her house.   We put her trampoline in the pool and moved A LOT of furniture!  The kids loved jumping on the trampoline in the water.   

Lach and I manuevring the trampoline over the fence.  Kinda fun cyclone prep!

The kids loved it!

After all of the hard work, I told Wendy that I was officially going to break my February fast.  I figured a CAT 5 cyclone was worthy of drinking.  We wasted no time pouring a glass of wine...and then another.  After no drinking for three weeks, I can definitely say my head was light after 2 glasses.   I was having fun and not worried about the cyclone any more.   (Also, I forget to mention that the cyclone's path had changed again and it looked like Suva would not be in the eye of the storm anymore...still hit, but not directly).   Just as the kids jumped into the pool, Warren called and asked if we had moved to Tricia's place yet.  When I said no, he said to get the kids out and ready and we need to go immediately as the storm is coming earlier than expected.   Bye bye buzziness and hello serious mode.  I hurriedly got everyone ready and we rushed over to our friends (with Warren).  They only live about 10 houses away from Wendy, so we got there quickly.   

At this point the winds were really starting to pick up, but nothing drastic yet.  We helped Tricia pull inside all of her furniture and board up all of the windows.  We were ready to hunker down for the night...or who knew how long at that point?   Things from there felt oddly normal.

locked inside with good friends, food, and wine

all boarded up

I took a quick nap.  The kids played.  We had a glass of wine.   Warren worked on his computer and things felt a bit surreal....  Here we were in this storm but it felt sort of normal (minus the boards on windows and squealing wind outside).   In all of life's major moments, I always feel like I'm not really present; like I'm watching it take place from the outside.   That's how this felt.

Anyway, half way into dinner prep the power went off.  The kids had fun with flashlights and we enjoyed a candlelight dinner of steak, (had to prepare the best meat as who knows how long power will be off and what they will lose from freezer), salad, and birthday cake for dessert (Happy 6th birthday Charley!)  

Fun with flashlights

Andie in her head lamp 

dinner by candlelight

kids watched DVD on charged up computer while we ate

I was really looking forward to staying up through the storm.  I brought loads of games for the adults to play after the kids went to sleep.   Warren and I put the kids to sleep in the boarded up basement and before I knew it....I woke up three hours later to Warren coming to bed.  What?  I asked him what was happening with the storm and he told me I missed it all.  It had already gone through Suva and was headed to Nadi.  Warren worked through most of the storm then stayed up a bit talking to Nicola.  Tricia read a bit then went to sleep.  So much for weathering the storm together.   Boring...yes.  But, I know how fortunate we are to even be able to sleep through the storm.  SO many families have terrifying stories of roofs flying, lost family members, flying trees, demolished houses, utter terror.  How lucky are we that while a bit more boring than I expected, we were all safe.  

The rest of the night was painful only because of the insane heat of being in a boarded up room with no breeze or fan or AC.  It was SO hot.  At one point I got up and got into a cold shower with a flashlight shining in the bathroom just to cool myself off.  Warren slept on a toddler bed, I slept on a sofa, and the girls shared the bed.  It wasn't supposed to be that way....but it was.

Warren woke up around 6 am and started getting ready.  He said he was going into work.  There was a nation wide curfew, but he didn't care.  He had to make sure all volunteers were safe.  He needed word from everyone.  He went into the Peace Corps office to connect with the volunteers who stayed there and to try to make contact with all of the other volunteers dispersed safely throughout the island.  (They are all safe, thank goodness!)  Because of the travel restrictions and road blocks all over Suva, I knew we couldn't leave.  Tricia, Nicola, the kids and I started surveying the damage.

Here we are first thing in the morning.....relieved and a bit tired from the night. 

Their pool had a lot of rubbish in it from the storm.  We spent an hour or so all swimming in it, diving for rubbish and cleaning it all out.  The kids loved doing that. 

Their backyard - a few trees down

One huge tree uprooted

Tricia's housekeeper (Leba) and her husband had stayed the night as well, so the men had the hard job of cleaning up the yard all morning.   Tricia and I entertained the kids by cleaning out the pool, exploring the yard, and playing board game after board game.  Eventually we ventured out to Wendy's to see how life was there with her nice generator.  It was much cooler at her house!   Andie had been fighting a fever all weekend and right before we left she fell asleep on the sofa.  I went back home to check on her (Leba was at home so we didn't leave her there alone) and as soon as I found her I was so glad I came back to her.  She had a 101.5 fever and was crying.  She had a terrible headache and ended up vomiting several times.   Poor baby.  At this point, I knew we had to get her home.  We have a generator and she needed to be cool and in her own bed.  I figured we had a good excuse if we got stopped in a road block.  All they had to do was look at her to see how sick she was. Warren got home (to our friend's house) around 6 and we immediately packed up to take her home.  No one stopped us along the way.  

Coming home was so nice.   Having power in the hot season is truly amazing.  Having a generator is a HUGE blessing.  As I'm writing this, my neighborhood still doesn't have power (4 days after storm) and I have no idea when it will be back on.    (Anyone need to charge things up?  Want a respite from the heat?  Come see me!)   Our home didn't have too much damage.  We lost a couple of trees and a small part of our roof.  No shattered windows and no water damage.   We are so fortunate.

my neighbor's trampoline there in the bushes. 

So sad to see our papaya tree down.   

This beautiful palm fell too....

the only roof damage we have.  could have been SO much worse

The information about the damage around the island is slowly trickling in.  I know there are still well over 8,000 people in evacuation centers, many missing persons including children, at least 42 dead, and a VAST amount of houses completely destroyed/flattened.   The images are horrific.  Large parts of the island are still without power, water, or communication so we don't even yet know the extent of it all.  I do know that the Fijian spirit is still alive.  Despite it all, people are still smiling and working together.  See my friend Brooke's post below about the village we visited last April (http://passintimeinfiji.blogspot.com/2015/04/trip-to-village.html).

We finally got through to the village. It's not pretty but thankfully all are okay. All houses severely damaged, many gone. The settlements along coast were flattened. New library is gone. Families have consolidated in the community hall and with others who were lucky enough to not lose everything. No one from Disaster Mgmt has been to see them yet. They are gathering breadfruit and coconuts and uprooted cassava and sharing them. All flour and rice in the little shops were ruined. Solo's sister said they have a new view because all the trees are down. New power lines are down. They are going house to house and cleaning up best they can. Despite the devastation, in true Fijian spirit, they are joking, working together and moving forward the best they can. They don't have much but they have each other.

There are many ways to help if you are interested.  One thing to do is come visit!  Put money into the local economy.  Tourism is huge here and Fiji depends on it's visitors.  If that's not viable for you, you can donate money to the relief efforts here.  You can choose from many organizations like The Australian Red Cross, Unicef, or my friend Brooke's efforts to rebuild her village.  I personally plan on donating clothes, household items, and linens to those I know in need.  I also will donate financially and give my time to pack relief boxes if they still need more volunteers.  It has really hit close to home.  If my home was hit, I would need to rely on help...so I know it's my job to help others too.