As we head into cyclone season from tomorrow, the Natural Disaster Awareness Week was launched in Suva today.
According to our Meteorological service, there is the possibility at least two cyclones could directly affect Fiji before the threat ends in April.
Permanent Secretary for National Disaster Management, Meleti Bainimarama, says seven to nine tropical cyclones are expected across the South Pacific from the Solomons to French Polynesia during the cyclone season.
”We advise all communities to remain alert and be prepared throughout the 2018/2019 tropical season and in particular to take heed of alerts, warnings and advisory issued by both the Fiji Meteorological officers and the National Disaster Management office.”
Fiji Meteorological Service Director, Ravin Kumar says Fijians need to stay vigilant.
“One may reach a stronger intensity which means, we are normally looking at category 3 tropical cyclones and on occasions we see category 4 and 5, given that in the world especially in the Northern hemisphere – we’ve seen a number of category 5 cyclones. We should not be remaining complacent that this can be a situation in the Southern hemisphere.”
Meanwhile, National Disaster Awareness week was launched in Sukuna Park today with the theme “Reducing Disaster Economic Losses”.
Students from various schools and emergency service stakeholders were part of the event, where they were also reminded of the devastation caused by TC Winston in 2016.
