The National Disaster Management Office is working with the Pacific Community to better understand the extensive flooding that occurred across the Western and Northern Divisions last month.

NDMO’s National Director – Anare Leweniqila say the technical expertise will not only assist them with confirming what attributed to the excessive flooding and also allow them to strategize and implement preventative measures.

“One of the key issues we noted from a preliminary study by SPC is that although this flooding was not as severe as those in 2009 and TC Evans, what is different from this particular event is the rate at which the water rose, this is by far the fastest in terms of all the events that have occurred in the past, so there are also going to be consideration on some of the measures to mitigate some of the issues surrounding the increasing water in some of these river systems and areas and tributaries.”

Leweniqila adds that the rainfall during Tropical Cyclone Josie and TDF13 was quite significant with the Meteorological Services Office reporting that in one instance, rainfall ranged between 150 ml to 200ml.

The NDMO Director adding that another area to work through is ensuring advisories are early, simple and concise that the general public is able to adhere to them and follow the warnings accordingly.