in cyclone
pp. 7-8 · Read in the full issue
Scores die in cyclone disaster
From a Suva correspondent Tropical cyclone Lottie claimed the lives of more than 80 people when two ships capsized in the southern Lau Group, Fiji, on Monday, December 10.
The ships were the 212-ton pas senger and cargo vessel, Uluilakeba, owned by the Lau Maritime Co operative Association, and the Makogai, a government cutter used mainly for medical services in outer islands.
Eighteen people from the Makogai reached Fulaga Island after the ship was lost. Five are still missing. The number believed to be missing from the Uluilakeba is 79. Of the 41 sur vivors from the Uluilakeba, 38 were picked up by the British cargo vessel Soochow, which searched in rough waters for two days, guided for much of the time by an aircraft of Fiji Air Services Ltd, in which the Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, was a passenger.
As Tui Lau (Paramount chief) of Lau, Ratu Sir Kamisese had an agonising personal involvement in the tragedy. Except for some crew mem bers and three American tourists aboard the Uluilakeba, nearly all the victims of the disaster were from islands in Southern Lau. Many of them including young children, were on their way to more northern islands or to Suva to spend Christmas with relatives and friends.
There will be an official inquiry into the loss of the two vessels.
Among the questions that will be asked will be whether the Uluilakeba was carrying an excessive number of passengers and why she did not seek shelter earlier. The captain and other deck officers will not be able to answer these questions. They were drowned, when the ship sank, suck ing down with her those clinging to her or to wreckage nearby.
Some survivors owe their lives to bags of coconuts which burst out of the hold. One man picked up by the Soochow had been swimming for two days in the stormy seas without any support. Some speak of seeing sharks among the people in the water.
Few of the passengers had been issued with lifebelts. One of the crew members who survived has claimed that a box containing lifebelts
was blown overboard in the height of the storm.
The court of inquiry will certainly ask whether the warnings given by the Meteorological office at Nadi were adequate. Forecasts spoke of winds of up to 40 knots, and a small boat warning was issued. Spokesmen for the weather office insist that mes sages broadcast foretold with accuracy that the storm would deepen as it reached Kadavu (where cyclonic winds destroyed whole villages) and southern Lau.
Uluilakeba survivors speak of waves 60 ft high. Kadavu observers claim that wind speeds exceeded 60 knots.
The Prime Minister has opened a
fund for the Uluilakeba and Makogai survivors and the dependants those who were lost. The Fiji Times has a parallel fund. Prime Minister’s fund contributions should e . addressed to the secretary of the Prime Minister’s Hurricane Relief Committee, care of the Ministry of Fijian Affairs and Rural Develop ment, Victoria Parade, Suva, The hurricane claimed a life on Kadavu, of a 50-year-old woman, who died when her bure collapsed, The Roko Tui Kadavu, Mr Solomoni Momoivalu, reported much damage to buildings and crops. The Hurricane Relief Committee sent 300 tents to Kadavu as temporary houses.
Happier days—the Uluilakeba, dressed overall and glistening in her newness, as she arrived at Suva on February 4, 1967, from the builder's yard in Japan.