Fiji’s April Weather Bombs
Fiji Meteorological Service
April usually heralds the end of the South Pacific Tropical Cyclone and wet season. Being a transition month there is a slight chance of a Tropical Cyclone or extreme rainfall event. The ‘Weather Bombs’ of April 2004 came as a surprise to the people of Fiji especially after a very quiet cyclone season, with various parts of the Pacific Island experiencing extensive flooding, landslides and loss of life and property, due to three marked tropical weather systems in just over a fortnight.
On the 6th April, a tropical depression formed just northwest of northern island of Vanua Levu. The system made landfall and early on the 7th was accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain which caused flooding in the western and northern parts of Vanua Levu. On the same day, a second tropical depression formed just west of Viti Levu. This tropical depression brought torrential rain and wind gusts to Yasawa Islands and the main island of Viti Levu. The tropical depression was reported to have maximum (10-minute) average winds of about 60 km/h and momentary gusts of 95 to possibly 130 km/h at its peak intensity.
Torrential rain caused the Wainibuka and smaller rivers in the northeastern Viti Levu region to overflow severely. To date, ten people are confirmed to have drowned and ten are still regarded as missing and presumed dead. The media focused largely on an incident where a public bus was caught in a landslide and swept into a flooded river. Fortunately most of the passengers had got off the bus leaving only six people inside, including the driver. Flooding resulted in the loss of a considerable amount of food crops amounting to everal thousands of dollars. A number of homes and bridges were destroyed as well.
During the 9th to 14th April, a trough of low pressure which had been lying over Fiji for a few days moved slowly northeastwards and was located northeast of Vanua Levu on the 11th. Another tropical depression developed along this trough to the northwest of Fiji, and became stationary between Vanua Levu and Rotuma till the 12th. However 12 hours later the trough retreated back over Fiji. It was located over the Group for the next two and a half days before moving to the southwest of Viti Levu on the 15th. With the ground being saturated from considerable rainfall in the past week, more rainfall in southeastern Viti Levu on the 14-15th led to considerable runoff from the highlands of southern Viti Levu setting off extensive flooding in the Waimanu and Waidina Rivers that feed into the Rewa River. The Navua catchment received continuous rainfall as well. The Navua River burst its banks on the 15th and low-lying areas were severely flooded. The National Disaster Management Centre reports “great damage” to root crops and housing in the Navua-Deuba corridor especially in Navua town, which is located on the banks of the Navua River. Navua hospital lost almost all its equipment, records and supplies. A total of 2374 people were moved to evacuation centres.
Preliminary estimates of damage for both events are in excess of $FJ6 Million with recovery costs estimated to be ~$FJ9 Million. The overall damage figure is likely to be more than double this as the above estimates are mainly for governmental infrastructure.