Death, Destruction

From Coral Sea

Cyclone

Cyclone Becky hit the Solo mons in the second week of De

cember, killing one woman,

critically injuring another and

causing widespread damage to

Malaita and other parts of the Central District.

Most of Malaita was affected, with Sinarango on the central north east coast the worst hit. San Cristobal suffered extensive damage.

Cyclone Becky started as a tropical depression between Malaita and Sikaiana, deepening into a cyclone as it gathered force, moving across Malaita towards Guadalcanal and south eastwards to San Cristobal.

At its height, winds of up to 80 miles an hour were reported in Auki, Malaita’s capital, and communica tion with Honiara was cut off.

Honiara itself was unaffected, but air services to there were interrupted.

Fiji Airways’ normal flight was delayed overnight at Vila and Solair’s services were curtailed as the cyclone moved from Malaita to San Cristobal. Preliminary warnings gave small ships time to take shelter and no shipping was damaged.

In Sinarango an estimated 180 leaf houses were destroyed and the damage was also bad at Atoifi in the north and Manawa'i in the south.

At Kira Kira, the government store’s roof was blown off and the market house destroyed.

Seven school buildings were destroyed at Alanguala School, Ugi Island, much general damage was reported from Pawa School, and half the church roof was blown off at Wainoni Mission.

The new Pue Pue bridge, opened a few months ago to provide the first vehicle bridge on San Cristobal, was badly damaged.

Flooding was an added hazard and in the Maka area, Malaita, one village had 200 people homeless, due to flood waters 12 ft high.

Becky left on December 13 towards the New Hebrides.

Two casualties in the New Hebrides were the sinking of the 60 ft Chinese trader Hong Kong and damage to the Burns Philp trader Manutai (formerly John Williams VI).

Manutai lost her deck cargo and shipped 400 tons of water before safely reaching port.