Sitting tight in Fiji as Cyclone Gita bears down on us
 

The first real cyclone of the season is heading our way, and once again it's doing weird things things, circling on itself and coming back to us when it should be safely passed. (Same thing that Cyclone Winston did, the one that smashed up parts of the country 2 years ago).

Cyclone Gita came over us from the north west, building from a category 1 - 2, passed us and got to Samoa over the weekend as a cat 3. Samoa was badly flooded, no detailed reports yet. Normal expectations would then have had the storm continue down south and east (cyclones spin the opposite way to hurricanes due to southern hemisphere stuff), and head to New Zealand, running out of power on the way as it cooled down.

However, that's not what's happening - it is now turning back west again. Tonight it will be over Tonga, which is now in a preparatory state of emergency - lots of very small, flat, low lying islands going to have a terrible time of it tonight. After that, tomorrow or Wednesday will be heading back to Fiji, this time hopefully staying south of us.

However it has now built to a cat 5, so even if we're not in the direct path, we're going to get rain, wind and rough seas. I live in the capital city, Suva, labelled just above the top left edge of the leading orange circle on the map below. We are not in a bad position, Suva city being built in a deep harbour with lots of hills and good drainage. We are up on a hill, not directly on the water, we have recently trimmed trees around the house, and our water tanks and generator fuel are all filled up in readiness, but we're not exactly waterproof, so tonight we will be raising things off the floor and plastic wrapping others.

We should be fine, if inconvenienced, although we do have a small fibreglass boat I'd prefer not to see sink (again... :o). I'm more concerned about my friends in small villages on the outer islands which got slammed last time (see Taveuni on the map below).

Gonna be a fun Valentine's day....

My thoughts and prayers are with you and with your friends and everyone in the path of this cyclone, that they and their families come through it safely.

Thanks Lucille.

At this time is it not expected to make landfall but as with Winston in 2016 it is changing hourly, so we just have to hope.

Here are some examples of what Category 5 Winston did to village houses made of roofing iron and plywood...

Fingers crossed that it goes further south over the next few days!

On the other hand, people in these kinds of places are incredibly resilient - not being reliant on central running water and electricity, you can put up a new tin roof house quickly and start gathering food from the wild.

These are two of my friends on Taveuni island after Winston - her house was totally flattened, but this shack made of donated roofing iron was enough shelter for quite a while, and he is showing a bowl of watercress picked from the forest 2 weeks after the cyclone (note there is still no roof on his house).

Thanks - we are all going to sit on the seafront and blow as hard as we can.... :D

Hope you make out OK. Seems like paradise sometimes can have just the worst days ever.........

Thanks Rich, at least we don't have to worry abut heating... worst of it is if the power goes out and we have no fans.

Yeah, I learned that lesson during one of our hurricanes when the power was out for about four days. It was murder during those hot nights without any air flow. Couldn't open the windows because it would have just allowed humid air inside, which would have made things feel much worse. So I went and bought a couple of battery powered fans for the next time. Runs off of "D" batteries and supposed to run for 40 hours or so on a set of 6.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/O2COOL-10...e-Fan/49332866

The fan looks great - wish we had a Walmart....