Photo gallery: Aftermath of Cyclone Winston in Fiji

Desdemona Despair

By Lucy Thackray
25 February 2016

(Daily Mail) – Fiji is in a state of natural disaster and its people are in urgent need after Cyclone Winston ripped through the Island nation and left a trail of destruction and heartbreak with 44 dead, more than 35,000 homeless and everyone – babies, families and the elderly – with nothing.

Devastating images show the impact of Fiji’s biggest ever storm, with debris scattered everywhere and nothing but single walls standing for some homes.

Mothers cradle children in the wreckage of their homes, children huddle together as they seek refuge at evacuation centres and fragile, elderly citizens are forced to fend themselves, left with nothing but the shirt on their backs.

A state of natural disaster and a nationwide curfew had been declared for the next 30 days by the Fijian Government, who has initiated the clean-up process by clearing the huge amounts of debris scattered everywhere.

Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama is warning his devastated nation it faces a long and difficult recovery.

‘Almost no part of our nation has been left unscarred,’ Mr Bainimarama said in a national address on Wednesday. [more]

Death toll in Fiji rises to 44 with a 10-month-old baby among those presumed dead after catastrophic Cyclone Winston tore through the country wiping out whole village