On 17th December 2012, Severe Tropical Cyclone Evan hit the northern and western division of Fiji, causing catastrophic damage. Damaging heavy waves, wind and severe flash flooding affected the Yasawa Islands for over 24 hours causing severe damage to the basic island villages. This project aims to help supply disaster relief for the worst affected areas of the northern Yasawas through infrastructure repairs and community support in assistance of long term recovery efforts.
Cyclone Evan is feared to be the strongest to threaten Fiji since 1993 Cyclone Kina, which left thousands homeless. The Yasawas communities where the GVI Charitable Trust work was severely affected. Winds exceeding 125 mph brought down trees, blocking roads and blowing away homes/roofs with widespread power and water outages. Many have already lost all their belongings. Major flooding is a high concern with powerful swells hitting the coastal communities and more rains to come.
Working with local communities and organisations, we aim to provide support for recovery projects throughout the affected areas helping to rebuild devastated communities and enable villagers to get back on their feet. After the floods in March 2012, GVI has a close relationship with the Red Cross. The GVI team aims to help expand disaster preparedness operations and ensure that an ongoing program of awareness is in place to help villages become more resilient to frequent natural disasters.
The project works with local organizations and community groups to meet both the short term urgent, basic human needs and the longer term requirements for recovery. By helping to meet the short term needs, the project minimizes the longer term physical and emotional effects of the disaster. To allow the communities to recover rapidly however, assistance is needed to clean up debris, re-build basic infrastructure , replant damaged crops, and repair water infrastructure.
