Political Roundup: The Horrific damage caused by forestry slash and vested interests

“Capitalists always want to privatise their profits and socialise their losses” – that’s the traditional socialist critique of how businesses are big fans of state intervention when it suits their interests. There seems to be a lot of that going around at the moment – many industries want government to help them be super-profitable, largely by reducing industry regulation and taxation, despite any damage they might cause.

However, there’s increasingly a public mood against the special pleading of such vested interests. This is evidenced in the criticisms now coming from across the political spectrum about the huge costs that New Zealand forestry businesses have been imposing on society, particularly with the multi-billion-dollar cost of “slash” debris that exacerbated or caused flood damage when Cyclone Gabrielle hit this month.

Even National’s leader Christopher Luxon echoed the socialist critique, when speaking about forestry last week in Parliament, describing it as “the only sector I know that gets to internalise the benefit and to socialise the cost”. He then talked about the need for further penalties and prosecutions of forestry businesses who fail to look after their own mess.

Although the timber industry isn’t unique in this regard, Luxon is quite correct to single them out. Forestry has become something of a case study in how vested interests have come to dominate the policymaking process, producing rules that favour the industry at the cost of society in general.

The role of slash in worsening the effects of the cyclone

The weather events of January and February have caused a horrific toll, yet much of it was avoidable. The destruction caused by the storms was made much worse by the way forestry operations have changed the land in places on the East Coast of the North Island.

One of the biggest problems is the litter foresters leave behind when they harvest pine trees. The industry terms the branches and debris left to rot on the hillsides as “slash”, and in large storms this litter is prone to be washed down rivers, causing mayhem. The debris forms dams and diverts the flow of water, flooding towns and farms, and knocking out bridges and roads. In Cyclone Gabrielle the impact of slash was enormous.

Illustrating this, a New Zealand Herald editorial complained on Friday that the word slash “is too gentle for the power and heft of avalanches of logs and branches that have again hurtled down hillsides on flood water, scouring out land and riverbeds, smashing bridges, roads and private property, endangering lives, cutting off communities and wrecking infrastructure.”

The Herald’s Fran O’Sullivan wrote in the weekend about the logging problem, concluding “what we have observed over the past fortnight simply puts New Zealand in the Third World category.” This is because in other developed countries, the slash problem is better regulated or even banned. It’s a problem that has been known about for many years, and yet in New Zealand the politicians have done virtually nothing about it, leaving society to pay for the damage caused by it.

The fact that the forestry companies can cause such great damage without being held accountable for the cost has astounded many. After all, citizens can be fined up to $5,000 under the Litter Act 1979, and if the litter endangers anyone, the fine increases and can include imprisonment.

Professor Anne Salmond likens it to deliberate vandalism: “If you were an individual and you took a bulldozer onto a property and destroyed their crops, knocked down their house and put lives at risk, you’d be in jail. And this is happening to hundreds of people, maybe thousands. This is not an Act of God, it’s an act of companies that put profit before environmental responsibility.”

Labour finally agrees to a ministerial inquiry, but will it do much?

Minister of Forestry Stuart Nash, has so far been highly supportive of the forestry industry, and has previously gone on record opposing a review of the slash problem. He suggested it is unnecessary, and that the forestry industry is best placed to self-regulate on this issue in conjunction with other stakeholders.

This stance has become untenable, and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has overruled Nash, announcing a ministerial inquiry on Thursday. It will be headed by former National Party minister Hekia Parata, and also involves forestry engineer Matthew McCloy and former Ecan chief executive Bill Bayfield.

The Government’s inquiry is already getting a lot of criticism. One Tolaga Bay farmer has labelled it a “Clayton’s enquiry” because it’s so limited. Clive Bibby says the review is unlikely to get to the truth of the matter “given the parameters surrounding the terms of reference and the limited time for submissions. This version can best be described as a Clayton’s enquiry – the one you have when you’re not having an enquiry”.

Bibby suggests the inquiry has been deliberately designed to avoid too much being revealed, as the Government itself could be blamed: “Nash will know that any enquiry worth its salt will implicate Government ideologically driven policy as one of the main culprits when apportioning blame. That is why he has done his best to limit the opportunity for this one to get to the bottom of what really happened”. He argues that “successive governments have supported the expansion of an industry that has unfortunately consumed everything in its path”.

Another local resident, Professor Anne Salmond, has also expressed her reservations about the independence of inquiry, saying: “It shouldn’t be run by the Minister of Forestry because there are vested interests in there. The minister is accountable to the people of New Zealand, not the forestry companies.” She says the inquiry needs to be able cross-examine expert witnesses.

Fran O’Sullivan argues Labour has made a mistake ordering “the quick turnaround of the Hekia Parata-chaired ministerial inquiry, when a more full-scale “Commission of Inquiry with all the powers attendant with that” better matches the scale of the disaster. She suggests there might be public suspicion about the independence and transparency of the review.

And, in fact, Stuart Nash emphasised yesterday that his Government won’t be bound by the recommendations of the inquiry.

How has the forestry industry become so dominant in the political process?

Professor Anne Salmond has called New Zealand’s regulation of forestry “third world”. And in the weekend, political commentator Max Rashbrooke argued that “The regulations governing their activities, and the penalties for their misbehaviour, have both been weak.”

It seems that forestry businesses have successfully sheltered themselves from the application of tough rules for their sector. This is perhaps unsurprising since they constitute a $7 billion industry – and are therefore one of New Zealand’s true “big businesses”. And the industry is in a significant growth phrase. Newshub revealed last night that the rise in new forestry area had gone from 695 hectares in 2013 to more than 18,000 hectares in 2022.

With this economic size, they naturally have a lot of political clout. In arguing aginst further regulation of their sector, forestry points out new rules would reduce their productivity and profitability. And in their pleas against further regulation they also make a great appeal to how reliant the New Zealand economy is on forestry earnings and employment.

The lobbying power of forestry is therefore huge. As the Herald’s editorial said on Friday, “Critics suggest the sector, much of it foreign-owned, has got away with it for so long because it works ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and because it has deep pockets to lobby the Beehive and local authority politicians.”

One of those critics, Anne Salmond, has been reported as believing “Forestry has formidable lobbying power and deep pockets”. And last week, Herald agriculture journalist Andrea Fox argued that the “powerful forestry lobby was marshalling its forces” to prevent any sort of significant inquiry into their operations.

The politicians themselves are often very close to the forestry operators, too. For instance, the Minister of Forestry himself used to work in the industry, and is now in charge of regulating what his former colleagues do. In 2020, when he was appointed, Nash was able to boast of an “extensive network of contacts in the forestry sector”.

Stuart Nash also carries out much of his election fundraising in this sector. In the last three elections he declared large donations totalling $99,000, $27,500, and $49,504. In 2020 about half of it came from forestry and timber companies. One timber businessman explained his financial backing for Nash, saying “It is important to the economy that government has politicians who understand industry.”

Being a Minister of Forestry who has been bankrolled by the sector he regulates does not mean he has broken any rules or done anything wrong. But it does raise questions about conflicts of interest, and about whether Nash’s funding has fostered a highly-favourable orientation towards the sector his donors come from. The public might well suspect that he has become too close to this vested interest.

The public and media are now putting Nash under pressure for his pro-forestry business orientation. In fact, a Herald editorial on Friday celebrated the increased pressure on Nash, saying “it’s about time”.

Nash answered these criticisms yesterday on TVNZ’s Q+A, claiming, “I’m not an apologist for the forest sector.” But as the human misery and billions of dollars of damage mount from unregulated forestry practices, the public are starting to push back on the free ride that the sector is still receiving. And it won’t just be socialists on the left and Christopher Luxon on the right demanding that vested interests pay their way, but a wider public that is increasingly angry with how such unfairness contributes to human disasters.

Further reading on forestry

1News Q + A: ‘I’m not an apologist for the forestry sector’ – Nash on slash
Newshub Nation: Forestry Minister Stuart Nash says Government won’t be bound by recommendations from inquiry into slash
Zane Small (Newshub): The amount of farmland converted into forestry revealed
Esther Taunton (Stuff): ‘All was calm, then came the clear-fell harvest’: Experts weigh in on the scourge of forestry slash
Max Rashbrooke (Stuff): Forestry slash a perfect emblem of modern capitalism’s failings
Tess McClure (Guardian): ‘Like a tsunami’: the role of forestry waste in New Zealand’s cyclone devastation
Hamish Bidwell (Herald): Forestry Minister Stuart Nash rejects criticism of slash inquiry

Other items of interest and importance today

CLIMATE CHANGE
Jamie Morton (Herald): Analysis: Has this extreme summer really changed how Kiwis feel about climate change? (paywalled)
Jamie Morton (Herald): Explained: What is ‘managed retreat’ and how may it be used in NZ?
Rod Oram (Newsroom): The next election should be a referendum on climate
Liam Dann (Herald): Before we pay the price of climate change we need to agree on the bill (paywalled)
Gareth Hughes (Stuff): How prepared are our political parties for a climate election?
Steven Cowan: Climate Adaptation is climate barbarism
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): NZ Climate Change Polluters now cry adaptation rather than mitigation
Rod Oram (Newsroom): Why NZ must integrate nature and urban design
Jack Santa Barbara (Newsroom): Redesign before the rebuild: Dealing with the storms’ aftermath
John Morgan and Nicolas Lewis (Newsroom): Is this the end of the Auckland dream?
Aurora Garner-Randolph (Newsroom): We need adults to support us for the School Strike for Climate

CYCLONE GABRIELLE, INFRASTRUCTURE
Andrea Vance (Stuff): It’s time for politicians to let go of infrastructure decisions
Stuff: After the storm, how can New Zealand bounce back?
Herald Editorial: A focus on funds for cyclone recovery fixes (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: Cyclone Gabrielle editorial: Our flimsy communication network exposed (paywalled)
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Cyclone makes Robertson’s Budget balancing act perilous
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Grant Robertson outlines how cyclone business support package will be spent
Alison Mau (Stuff): When Kiwi spirit shines, but bureaucracy fails the test of human kindness
RNZ: Flood recovery: $25m in initial grants to be locally led – Robertson
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Come on NZ, we need a new Ministry of Works and you know it!
Katie Kenny (Stuff): Cracking the code of catastrophic floods in New Zealand
Terry Baucher (Interest): Te wiki o te tāke; Facing up to some very big short and long term challenges
Rob Stock (Stuff): Bank emergency overdrafts should not be ‘default’ option for cash-strapped cyclone victims, mentors say
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Crackdown: Pawnbrokers and payday lenders target cyclone victims
Susan Botting (Local Democracy Reporting): Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says building post-cyclone State Highway 1 resilience will potentially take years
Imran Ali (Northern Advocate): At least $120m needed to fix Northland roads damaged by cyclone; Mangawhai sees 350mm of rain in 24 hours
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Bulk of Hawkes Bay fruit growers’ crops uninsured 

THREE WATERS
Claire Trevett (Herald): National’s counter policy to Labour’s Three Waters carries big question marks (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herlad): National unveils Three Waters policy: No co-governance, but no big cost savings
Bernard Hickey: National chooses to think just as magically as Labour on water infrastructure, taxes and debt
Luke Malpass (Stuff): National begins the big Three Waters sales pitch
RNZ: National pledges to scrap Three Waters and ‘deliver local water well’
1News: Luxon: National will scrap Three Waters, set strict water rules
Adam Hollingworth (Newshub): National will scrap ‘undemocratic and unworkable’ Three Waters if elected
Brent Edwards (NBR): National’s plan for investing in three waters infrastructure (paywalled)
Lois Williams (Newsroom): Councils say Three Waters erodes flood response
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): 3 Water fish hooks – The Dragon and the Taniwha redux

PARLIAMENT
Richard Harman (Politik): Nats turn green (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herlad): Todd Muller on his journey back to the frontline (paywalled)
Jem Traylen (BusinessDesk): National party reiterates head office downsizing will help pay for tax cuts (paywalled)
Shane Te Pou (Herald): Public servants deserve thanks for their mahi (paywalled)
Peter Wilson (RNZ): Week in Politics: Luxon’s ‘low energy’ speech and the first head-to-head
Claire Trevett (Herald): Beehive Diaries: Chris Hipkins joins Maureen Pugh in the reading room after blunder, and what happened to Jacinda Ardern’s whisky stash (paywalled)
Herald: Chris v Chris: Who won the week? Hipkins or Luxon? (paywalled)
Jacqui Van Der Kaay (Democracy Project): Scandal and stretching the truth
Phil Smith (RNZ): Democracy on the cheap: Skint Parliament to turn off the radio
Herald: Former MP Chester Borrows battling terminal cancer, family called to bedside
Victor Billot (Newsroom): An Ode for .. the new Prime Minister

MEDIA
Hayden Donnell (RNZ): Climate minimisation still has a foothold in media
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Claims and counter-claims on post-cyclone crime spike
Karl du Fresne: A few more thoughts on Luxon, Pugh and the media – oh, and press secretaries too
Herald: Ask Me Anything: Barry Soper talks to Paula Bennett about politics and being a new dad
Dita De Boni (NBR): Power steering TVNZ through macro-economic thicket (paywalled)
RNZ: TVNZ’s profit drops as advertising revenue falls, costs rise

MAUREEN PUGH
Damien Grant (Stuff): Why we need to stand up for the Maureen Pughs of the world
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret crucible of Maureen Pugh (paywalled)
Andrew Gunn (Stuff): ‘Who knew that talking about the weather could get you in trouble!’

HOUSING
Dick Bellamy (Herald): Housing intensification plan for Auckland should be dumped due to flood risks
Janine Starks (Stuff): Why ‘insurance retreat’ will drive our housing market away from flood risk
Gareth Vaughan (Interest): Doug Fairgray on the Labour-National push to enable greater housing density across our five biggest cities
Brendon Harre (Interest): Deceit, speculation, and mistrust has long characterised New Zealand’s approach to land-use
Brian Easton (Pundit): Minsky And The Housing Market
Greg Ninness (Interest): Number of first home buyers getting into a home of their own at an eight year low
Miriam Bell (Stuff): First home buyers dream of snapping up houses, not apartments
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): Affordable housing levy sparks fear and loathing in Queenstown (paywalled)
Federico Magrin (Stuff): National MP calls for use of Tekapo military camp to solve worker accommodation shortage
Carmen Hall (Herald): Meet the landlords who say owning residential rentals is ‘almost unviable’ (paywalled)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Devika Dhir (Newsroom): A move to shred our social fabric
Dale Husband (E-Tangata); Mayor Moko: ‘Do you think you’re old enough to be doing this?’
Tommy de Silva (Spinoff): Beautiful karakia tradition continues at Kaipara council
Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): Christchurch settles with Aon over $320m quake claim (paywalled)

FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Oscar Jackson (Today FM): Nania Mahuta’s secret mission: Prepare for a China/Indo-Pacific diplomatic minefield
David Farrar: We should help Ukraine more
Benjamin Plummer (Herald): Kiwi held hostage in Papua New Guinea safely released

DEFENCE
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Defence Minister Andrew Little says military ‘under pressure’ as Pacific becomes contested
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Andrew Little on spooks, working with Australia, and speeding up the review of Defence (paywalled)

EMPLOYMENT
Sasha Borissenko (Herald): Is the Employment Relations Act fit for purpose? (paywalled)
Katie Harris (Herald): Would men take more parental leave if offered it? One Kiwi employer found out

ECONOMY
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): Reserve Bank Deputy Governor: ‘You sort of live with a knot in your stomach’ (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): On the Tiles: Deputy Reserve Bank Governor Christian Hawkesby on the tight balancing act in fighting inflation
David Chaston (Interest): Did our banks get Orr’s message?
Hillmarè Schulze (NBR): Complex relationship between minimum wage and inflation (paywalled)
Warren Couillault (NBR): How long will the Reserve Bank’s economic squeeze last? (paywalled)

RNZ Mediawatch

New Zealand’s media were in emergency mode yet again this week, offering hours of extra coverage on air, online and in print.

Outlets in the hardest-hit places reported the basics — even without access to basics like power, communications and even premises.

What will Gabrielle’s legacy be for media’s role in reporting disasters and national resilience?

“Keep listening to the radio. You guys have done a great job updating people and it’s very much appreciated,” the Civil Defence Minister Keiran McAnulty told Newstalk ZB’s last Sunday afternoon as Gabrielle was just beginning to wreak havoc.

Barely two weeks earlier, sudden and catastrophic flooding in and near Auckland caught the media off-guard, but some commentators claimed the heavy warnings about Gabrielle were oppressively ominous — and risked “crying wolf”.

Gabrielle ended up as a national emergency and sparked non-stop rolling news coverage. There were few flat spots on TV and radio, and live online reporting around the clock also give a comprehensive picture — and pictures — of what was going on.

It stretched newsrooms to their limits, but news reporters’ work was skillfully and selectively supplemented with a steady stream of vivid eyewitness accounts.

Forestry slash flood
Tolaga Bay farmer Bridget Parker’s description on RNZ Nine to Noon of yet another inundation at her place with added forestry slash was among the most confronting (and sweary).

Checkpoint’s emotional interview on Wednesday with a couple that owned a house in which a friend “disappeared under water” was compelling — but also chilling.

RNZ’s Kate Green arrived in Gisborne on Monday with the only means of communicating that worked — a satellite phone.

“You can’t even dial 111. Everything that can break is broken,” she told RNZ Morning Report listeners, quoting the local mayor.

RNZ’s Māni Dunlop, who managed to fly in on Tuesday, told listeners that from the air the East Coast looked “buggered”.

Gisborne is a city and Tairawhiti a region not well covered at the best of times by New Zealand’s national media, which have no bureaux there. It is a bit of an irony that in the worst of times, it was so hard to get the word out.

But the locally-owned Gisborne Herald stepped up, somehow printing editions every day distributed free to 22,000 homes — with the help of NZDF boots n the ground on some days.

Proud news day
“I’m proud to be working on this paper today,” reported Murray Robertson said, signing off an eye-opening video of scenes of the stricken city posted online once power came back and a fresh Starlink unit kicked in.

On Wednesday, ZB’s Mike Hosking pleaded on air for diesel to keep their signal up in Hawke’s Bay, while the editor of Hawke’s Bay Today Chris Hyde — only months into his job — found himself literally powerless to publish when the rivers rose, cutting the electricity and cutting him off from many of his staff.

“The first day I was in a black hole. In a big news event, the phones ring hot. This was the biggest news event in Hawke’s Bay since the Napier earthquake  . . . and my phone wasn’t ringing at all,” he told Mediawatch.

Hyde, just 32 years old, was a student in Christchurch when The Press stunned citizens by publishing a paper the morning after the deadly 2011 quake.

Hyde said NZME chief editor Shayne Currie and The New Zealand Herald’s Murray Kirkness were instrumental in putting the Auckland HQs resources into getting NZME’s upper North Island dailies promptly back in print and available for free.

“Just keep supporting local news, because in moments like this, it really does matter,” Chris Hyde told Mediawatch.

On Wednesday, Hyde had the odd experience of seeing Tuesday’s edition of the paper on the AM show on TV before he had even seen it himself.

Cut-off news focus
On Wednesday, RNZ switched to focus on news for areas cut off or without power — or both — where people were depending on the radio. RNZ’s live online updates went “text-only” because those who could get online might only have the bandwidth for the basics.

Day of ‘danger’

This is the first copy of Tuesday’s @hawkesbaytoday that I’ve seen. It never made it to my home, to our offices, to our subscribers. When I wrote that headline had some idea of what was coming, and yet we had no idea. pic.twitter.com/57PmhoeyYr

— Chris Hyde (@chrishydejourno) February 16, 2023

“Thank God for news media in a storm,” was former Herald editor Gavin Ellis in his column The Knightly Views.

He was among the critics of media coverage of Auckland’s floods a fortnight earlier.

Back then he said social media and online outlets had trumped traditional news media in quickly conveying the scale and the scope of the flooding.

This time social media also hosted startling scenes and sounds reporters couldn’t capture — like rural road bridges bending then buckling.

But Gavin Ellis said earlier this week he couldn’t get a clearer picture of Gabrielle’s impact without mainstream media.

“Those two episodes where chalk and cheese. Coverage of Cyclone Gabrielle by all media was excellent, both in warning people about what was to come – although that wasn’t universal – and then talking people through it and into the aftermath, And what an aftermath it’s been,” he told Mediawatch.

“This is precisely why we need news media. They draw together an overwhelming range of sources and condense information into a readily absorbed format. Then they keep updating and adding to the picture.” he wrote.

Retro but robust radio

“It’s even more pressing if you haven’t got electricity, and you haven’t got those online links. That was when radio really came into its own,” said Ellis.

“Organisations like the BBC,and the ABC (Australia) are talking about a fully-digital future and moving away from linear broadcasting. What happens to radio in those circumstances if you haven’t got power? If you’re sitting on your rooftop surrounded by water, you can still have a radio on, he said.

“We need to have a conversation about the future of media in this country and the requirements in times of urgency need to be looked at,” Ellis told Mediawatch.

RNZ’s head of news Richard Sutherland’s had the same thoughts.

“It has certainly been a reminder to generations who have not been brought up with transistor radios they are important to have in a disaster. This will also sharpen the minds of people on just how important ‘legacy’ platforms like AM transmission are in civil defence emergencies like the one we’ve had,” he said.

“With the Tonga volcano, Tonga was cut off from the internet. and the only thing getting through was shortwave radio. In the 2020s, we are talking about something that’s been around since the early 1900s still doing the mahi. In this country, we are going to need to think very carefully about how we provide the belt and braces of broadcasting infrastructure,” he told Mediawatch.

“Everyone was super-aware of the way that the Auckland flooding late last month played out — and no one wanted to repeat that,” said Sutherland, formerly a TV news executive at Newshub, TV3, TVNZ and Sky News.

“Initially the view was this is going to be bad news for Auckland because Auckland, already very badly damaged and waterlogged. But as it turned out, of course, it ended up being Northland, Coromandel, Hawke’s Bay have been those areas that caught the worst of it,” Sutherland told Mediawatch.

News contraction
“Over the years, and for a number of reasons, a lot of them financial, all news organisations have contracted. And you contract to your home city or a big metropolitan area, because that’s where the population is, and that’s where the bulk of your audience is,” he said.

“But this cyclone has reminded us all as a nation, that it’s really important to have reporters in the regions, to have strong infrastructure in the regions. I would argue that RNZ is a key piece of infrastructure,” he said.

“This incident has shown us that with the increasing impact of climate change, news organisations, particularly public service lifeline utility organisations like RNZ, are going to have to have a look at our geographic coverage, as well as our general coverage based on population,” he said

“We are already drawing up plans for have extra boots on the ground permanently  . . but also we need to think where are the regions that we need to have more people in so that we can respond faster to these sorts of things,” he said.

“We are at a moment where we could do something a bit more formal around building a more robust media infrastructure . . . for the whole country. I would be very, very keen for the industry to get together to make sure that the whole country can benefit from the combined resources that we have.

“Again, everything comes down to money. But if the need is there, the money will be found,” he said.

Now that the government’s planned new public media entity is off the table, it will be interesting to see if those holding the public purse strings see the need for news in the same way.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Cyclone Gabrielle death toll rises to 11 after two deaths reported today https://t.co/ifMjC2wFsc

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) February 18, 2023

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Cyclone Keni has moved out of Fijian waters and lies about 275km south-southwest of the Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa, reports Pacnews.

The Fiji Met Service said the cyclone still remains a category three storm, with winds between 130 and 185km/h still blowing.

At its peak, average wind gusts were up to 195km/h.

Keni was forecast to weaken as it continued to move southeast into cooler waters.

Within the next 18 hours the storm could cease to be a cyclone, said Met Service.

Cyclone Keni wreaked havoc as it passed the southern islands of Fiji overnight bringing destructive winds and downpours causing flooding.

The Fiji government said all schools being used as evacuation centres would remain closed today as well as all schools on Kadavu

Kadavu suffers direct hit
Some homes collapsed and a school suffered serious damage on Kadavu at the height of Tropical Cyclone Keni last night, reports the Fiji Sun.

Anare Leweniqila, director of National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), said Kadavu appeared to be the worst hit area.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said yesterday that the government had received reports of damage to homes in Kadavu and the school in Vunisea.

“At 5pm this afternoon TC Keni is still very much in our waters, so there will be damaging winds,” said Bainimarama.

Cyclone Keni did not make landfall and it was approximately 95 km east south east of Kadavu. It was moving away last night.

Leweniqila said they would send an assessment team to Kadavu as soon as the weather permitted.

He said they did not have details of the damage.

Commissioner Eastern Luke Moroivalu confirmed receiving a report that some houses had been destroyed.

“The last report I received from the village was some dwelling houses had fallen,” he said.

He said communication to Kadavu was cut off before he could get more details.

In an earlier interview before Cyclone Keni hit, the headman (turaganikoro), Kalivati Tukutukulevu, said the village was prepared and they had eight evacuation centres, including the village hall.

Tukutukulevu said they were experiencing strong winds and they were prepared for the cyclone.

“Villages of Ono, Buliya, Dravuni and Kokomo have been told to move to their evacuation centres,” he said.

The Fiji island of Kadavu suffered a direct hit with homes destroyed, trees uprooted and boats capsized on the island’s south side.

Storm ‘came out of nowhere’
Luke Kerchevale, co-owner of Matava Resort on Kadavu, said the storm seemed to come out of nowhere, reports Pacnews.

“Quite a large boat is capsized because we couldn’t get it to shelter soon enough. We’ve had a number of huge mango trees come down on a lot of our buildings,” said Kerchevale.

Kerchevale and co-owner Mark, who are both from Australia, said thankfully all of their staff and guests were safe but Kerchevale said they were really worried for people in the nearby villages.

“They are really struggling. A lot of the villages have lost their houses completely. We have got a small village next to us who have had to do a walk around the mountain to get to us for shelter because they have lost everything where they are…it was pretty full on,” Kerchevale said.

Kerchevale said they would head out to check on people in the villages once they were sure the cyclone had passed and they were able to clear debris from around the resort.

On the nearby island of Ono-Kadavu, local Paul Ragede said strong winds from the cyclone raged for over two hours.

Ragede said his village was fortunate that a lot of their buildings were strong structures but people he has contacted at Vunisea, the main government station on Kadavu, say there has been a lot of destruction.

‘Like pieces of paper’
“It is really bad. The secondary school library there at Vunisea has gone down, the post master’s office, root crops and all the big big trees have been like folded as if they were pieces of paper,” Ragede said.

Fiji’s meteorological service said Nadi and the south-west of Viti Levu have escaped the worst effects of the Tropical Cyclone.

Fijian Metservice director Ravindra Kumar said the category three system changed direction late on Tuesday afternoon and sped up towards the south-east.

Kumar said this meant the strongest hurricane force winds were over water and didn’t make land-fall on Viti Levu. 

Meanwhile, seven teams from the Fiji Red Cross Society (FRCS) are ready to be deployed as soon as the flood waters recede in flooded areas in the Western Division, reports Pacnews.

FRCS Spokesperson Maciu Bolaitamana said they were currently monitoring the situation, as most parts of the Western Division are flooded.

“First and foremost is to go out into the field and make our assessment and come back and analyse these assessments and see where the distribution fits in these areas,” said Bolaitamana.

Bolaitamana said they would only distribute non-food items, including hygiene kits, dignity kits for pregnant mothers, water cans and purification tablets.

Clean-up begins
Residents in the West have begun cleaning up following the devastation caused by Cyclone Keni, reports FBC News.

Municipal council workers in Nadi, Lautoka and Ba have begun clearing debris that was brought in by flooding and strong winds.

Fiji Electricity Authority and Water Authority officials are also working to restore power and water supply.

People who were taking shelter at around 80 evacuation centres are expected to return to their homes today.

It will take some time for the people to get their lives and homes back to normal.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz