“I can’t imagine what it was like for the people up the northern end of the island where the cyclone made landfall”.
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Assessment teams are still working their way towards more remote regions, with blocked roads and wiped-out bridges slowing their progress, so the full extent of the damage is not yet known, Ms Slattery told AAP. He said another person on the west of Viti Levu had been hospitalized after being hit by flying debris.
Virgin Australia has announced it will resume flights in and out of Nadi on Monday, while Jetstar and Fiji Airways have cancelled their scheduled flights.
She said there was foliage everywhere that looked like it had been put through a blender.
Australia’s government has offered an initial $5 million assistance package to Fiji and the Australian Defence Force has also offered transport helicopters and two Orion surveillance aircraft to help with the relief effort.
Tropical Cyclone Winston, which lashed Fiji on Saturday night, is the most powerful storm on record in the Southern Hemisphere, authorities said.
Tourism minister Faiyaz Siddiq Koya said all tourists in Fiji were safe and there was no significant damage to the majority of hotels on the main island.
The United Nations Humanitarian Agency (UNOCHA) said it was ready to support the disaster management office if required.
Nearly 8,000 people remain in emergency shelters where they had taken refuge before the cyclone.
A tree blocks a road after it was blown down by the encroaching cyclone Winston in Nakasi, Fiji, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.
Fiji Prime Minister Frank Banimarama confirmed the death toll, declaring a 30-day state of emergency and a national curfew extended until Monday morning.
“People will need emergency shelter materials such as tarpaulins to fix their homes and they will most likely need relief items such as plastic jerry cans to collect water as well as other household supplies they may have lost in the storm”, said Ahmad Sami, a spokesperson for the IFRC, in a statement.
Authorities are expecting the death toll to continue to rise as the clean up continues and communication lines open between remote areas. They said that all schools would be closed for a week to allow time for the cleanup, and that three universities would be closed until further notice.
He said priorities were restoring power and repairing damaged homes, as well as maintaining drinking water supplies in more than 700 evacuation centres.
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“Our main concern is for people in makeshift housing who did not have the protection of well-constructed buildings in urban centres and residents of outlying islands, particularly in the Lomaiviti group”, Ms Raijeli said.
