Situation in Fiji ever more grim as aid slow to get through

Transcript

Power is still off in many areas of Fiji - and the blunt reality is it's expected to be four months before it's back to normal.

In battered townships and villages people are without roofs and still without food.

From Fiji, Kim Baker Wilson has some of their stories.

ANUL LATA: "It is all broken, all. My name is Anul Lata"

In Ba, Anul Lata is standing in water that's completely covering the living room floor. It's raining on us. There's no roof, and she has next to no hope.

KIM BAKER WILSON: "Has any help come so far?"

ANUL LATA: "No, no, no not yet.

KIM BAKER WILSON: "Nothing from the government?"

ANUL LATA: No, no, no.

KIM BAKER WILSON: "Nothing from Red Cross or any other agencies?

ANUL LATA: "No Red Cross, nothing, no. Food nothing and nothing any nobody came and just the first, the first you have came."

KIM BAKER WILSON: "I am the first?"

ANUL LATA: "Yes I am, you are the first man to visit this house."

KIM BAKER WILSON: Have you got water and have you got food?

ANUL LATA: " No we have only water coming but no food because in the town we have curfew we can't go into town to buy the food. We have to wait after one week and we don't know if we have food in the town or not. We are not sure."

She takes me through her home. That's the ankle-deep water we're still trudging through.

ANUL LATA: "Only this room left we just pray God just leave my mother with one room."

KIM BAKER WILSON: "And she was left with one room?"

ANUL LATA: "Yea, yea."

KIM BAKER WILSON: " What does your mother think of everything that has happened to her?"

ANUL LATA: " Oh she was very, when we came she was crying."

KIM BAKER WILSON: So it seems like you are still not sure what to do now. You haven't heard anything no one has come to see you.

ANUL LATA: "Yeah no, nothing you are the first, God bless you, you are the first man to come and see us. "

The road is littered with trees, corrugated iron roofing is wedged into one tree that's still standing.

I arrive at Sushal Kumar's home. Again, it has no roof.

KIM BAKER WILSON: "Should we go and have a look at some of the damage around here then? So we are just coming out of the bedroom."

SUSHAL KUMAR: "The roof from that side is up there."

KIM BAKER WILSON: "That is a good few metres away isn't it? It is a long way away."

SUSHAL KUMAR: "Ah yes it came around here, we put a canvas around here."

KIM BAKER WILSON: " So the roof is over there on the ground away from the house so where, come and show me where it was when it was on the house.

SUSHAL KUMAR: "Oh it was in the front."

And at the front a view to the sky, and belongings in disarray.

KIM BAKER WILSON: So here we are at the front of the house.

SUSHAL KUMAR: Yes this is the front here.

KIM BAKER WILSON: And there is no roof.

SUSHAL KUMAR: So if the rain comes in so it starts leaking everywhere so that is why we just pull this one out and let the rain come down so instead of coming the other side."

KIM BAKER WILSON: "So you were in your bedroom next door through all of this so what did it sound like as the roof...?"

SUSHAL KUMAR: "Oh this was a horrible sound I ever expected that and it was very scary I tell you that. And all my hairs were standing and I was just about calling up to God, I was calling up to God just help us you know."

He, like so many others, have no power, and he may not get it back anytime soon.

Workers and contractors at the Fiji Electricity Authority are scrambling to clear the tangled web of fallen power lines.

It's a massive task, and a manager, Om Datt Sharma, is helping to oversee it.

OM DATT SHARMA: " Our plan is to get the power supply up as quickly as possible but it could take us at least 3 to 4 months to get the network restoration work completed."

But the speed of progress depends on the weather.

And it's still stormy in the west of Fiji's main island, still miserable for the people without roofs or homes.