Cyclone weary Fiji downs repair tools to prepare for Zena

Transcript

Heavy rain, floods and another cyclone heading towards Fiji are causing more heartaches for Cyclone Winston victims trying to rebuild their homes.

Some of the poorest living in settlements around Lautoka can only do makeshift repairs as they wait for long-term help.

Sally Round is in Fiji and has this report.

Stewart Beveridge and his team from Samaritan's Purse are unloading packs of bright blue tarpaulins at a village in the foothills north of Lautoka.

STEWART BEVERIDGE: As you can see as you walk around, most of the village houses have got damage of some sort so they need that now, without even realising there's more wind, more rain coming tonight.

The local people are happy to see the tarps as they hurry to make things good with a cyclone and more heavy rain on the way. Some like Verinaisi Navuniovatu have packed up a few things and are ready to evacuate.

VERINAISI NAVUNIOVATU: It's a worry and I have decided we are going to look for shelter now. We are not going to take any chances now. We are getting prepared to move before anything worse happens.

We come across Mohammed Shamim surveying his roofless house, a jumble of debris nearby waiting to be recycled. He expects repairs to cost FJ$10,000 at least, hard to raise from his job as a taxi driver. He's not sure what sort of help he'll get from the government but he's getting on with things.

MOHAMMED SHAMIM: Every day I come. Work daytime, drive at night for my family's survival. Some materials I have got. I'm completing the inside now.
SALLY ROUND: So you are able to do some work?
MS: Yeah.
SR: The major problem is the roof isn't it?
MS: Yeah, the timber and the roof. So I am just repairing now to make that structure.

Sikeli Matawalu is also trying to make a new roof but money is a problem. He's had a hundred dollars here and there from the church and friends but repairs will cost FJ$9000 he doesn't have. His family of 11 are squeezed into the two room shed still standing at the back. His daughter Elisapeci Biau says it's stressful.

ELISAPECI BIAU: A lot of stress because we're just living in one small house at the back. All of us living there, all of the family. Eleven of us in that small house. It's very hard when the rain comes. The house got all wet and we have no place to sleep. It's very exhausting.

Pastor Mike Naisau says there's still a lot of need six weeks on from Cyclone Winston.

MIKE NAISAU: Some of them have lost their jobs because of all this. The companies are unable to employ them for the time being. It's coming to that stage where food is a necessity. They need food, they need help. And because of the rainy season right now, there's a lot of need to repair the houses.

A young father of two, Mohammed Nadim, now lives in an aid tent, most of his possessions gone. He sits down every night with his wife to dream of the new house he will build one day.

MOHAMMED NADIM: I want to build a kind of house which [from] both sides is safe. From the water, from the wind. It's in my mind.

With only casual work, expensive materials to find and only himself to do the work he fears that dream home could be a long way off.