10 Jan 2009

Fiji officials predict more people will need to be evacuated

10:28 am on 10 January 2009

The authorities in Fiji are predicting more people will need to be evacuated from their homes in Nadi, as torrential rain continues to batter the west of Fiji.

There have already been two fatalities.

Two young men drowned while trying to cross swollen rivers.

Fiji's National Disaster Management Office says more than 14-hundred people have been told to leave their homes, with others still to be evacuated.

The Office's team leader Petiliai Dodui says those who have been evacuated are staying at local schools.

"So for Fiji, we were a little bit fortunate because it's school holidays and most of the schools are empty because of the holidays. So it was easy putting people up for evacuation purposes."

Petiliai Dodui says the flooding in Nadi is the worst he can remember.