A devastating cyclone flattened much of the tiny Fiji island of Cikobia yesterday, with most houses and vegetation destroyed, but its 69 villagers survived by hiding in caves, officials said.
Communications to the remote island on Fiji's northeastern border were knocked out in the storm but a brief radio telephone message confirmed all the villagers had been accounted for.
They were able to flee their homes before Cyclone Daman made a direct landing at about 3am and took shelter in caves on the island.
The full extent of the damage to Cikobia is unlikely to be known until today after initial attempts to conduct an aerial survey were aborted because of continuing poor weather.
Relief officials said a boat carrying supplies of medicine, food and tarpaulins would leave for the island late yesterday and another attempt to send in a helicopter would be made at first light today.
Initial reports indicated there had been casualties.
But a nurse on Cikobia was able to get a message to Labasa Hospital on Vanua Levu island to confirm there were no serious injuries, although houses and vegetation had been destroyed, the hospital superintendent, Ami Chand, said.
As Daman, packing hurricane-force winds of up to 260kph, bore down on Fiji on Friday, residents were forced to take shelter and tourists were evacuated from expensive island resorts.
The storm, a category four on a five-point scale, was initially heading for Vanua Levu, Fiji's second largest island, before veering away and making a direct hit on Cikobia.
Although the worst of the storm was considered to have passed by dawn yesterday, residents across Fiji were warned of possible flash-floods in low-lying areas and coastal flooding at high tide.
Fiji is frequently hit by tropical cyclones in the summer months and Cikobia in particular is considered a "cyclone magnet," suffering direct or near-direct hits of Cyclones Kina in 1993, Gavin in 1997 and Ami in 2003.
The Nadi weather office in Fiji said Daman was slowly moving out of the Fiji group towards Tonga and on its present path was not expected to affect any other islands in the Fiji group.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS