As the after effects of Tropical Cyclone Winston emerge, stories of survival during the storm are coming out.

In Lautoka, Navin Deo and his family have nothing left and had to use their bed to save their lives.

The family was amongst those not spared by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston. The words of a child summed it up all during the height of the storm.

‘’she was terrified, she was holding onto me as we crouched down in the bathroom. She was crying out; are we going to die? are we going to die?’’

A bed turned out to be the only thing that saved their lives.

‘’me, my daughter and wife hid in the bathroom for two hours, then when the winds died down we hid under the bed for the rest of the night as the roof over us had been blown off. We spent the rest of the night under our bed on the cold floor. All our things are ruined, I don’t have a roof anymore’’.

It’s an ordeal that will not be easily erased from the memories of the family.

‘’Actually terrified at the thought of it all, the gusty winds, the walls moving on the verge of collapsing’’.

This is just one of the stories emerging after the the cyclone, now reported to be the strongest and most deadly to ever hit Fiji.

And for the Deo family, just like thousands of others, there is no telling what the next few weeks will hold.