31 Dec 2012

Widespread flooding causes damage in Solomon Islands

7:50 am on 31 December 2012

Initial assessments in the Solomon Islands suggest most of the damage from Cyclone Freda has been from widespread flooding.

The cyclone swept slowly across the country over the weekend, intensiftying to a category four by the time it moved south.

The World Vision operations manager, Jared Berends, says that emergency services will fly over to assess the damage today.

But he says reports have been coming in from the remote islands, which took the brunt of the storm.

"Most of the damage is coming from the heavy rain, from the flooding. There's been some minor damage to houses with roofs being blown off. But they have been reporting that the main damage is due to food crops being damaged and then there's also some small infrastructure, like buildings and bridges as well which have been damaged also"

Jared Berends says damage to food crops will have long term damaging effects, and staff will be heading out with relief items today.