31 Jan 2008

Red Cross in Fiji says country still faces a flood threat

11:24 am on 31 January 2008

The Red Cross in Fiji says the country still faces a flood threat.

The death toll from tropical cyclone Gene now stands at 7, with unconfirmed reports of more.

Fiji Red Cross disaster coordinator, Vuli Gauna, says they've been told power should be back to 80% some time today.

And he says most people are back in their homes, but without power and water.

"I think we had a total of more than 20 evacuation centres that had been open and closed and open again in the last two days. There are at least 2 evacuation centres that are still being monitored. The needs that the are looking at is just provision of food rations to those that are staying at the centres."

He says a few businesses have gone back to normal operations, but some still closed.

Meanwhile, the cylone has now moved away from Fiji and heading towards the Vanuatu group.