Family still in the dark

Mark Muller has no idea whether he and his family will have a home to return to in northern Fiji, worst hit by Cyclone Tomas.

Yesterday, the former Taranaki man and his wife Parisi, with their three children, two girls, aged eight and five and their two-month-old boy, were relieved they had travelled to Nadi for the weekend, avoiding the worst cyclone to hit the islands in decades.

Fiji's Government declared a civil emergency yesterday after the cyclone wreaked havoc as it tracked across the north and east of the islands. Friends close to their home in Savusavu told them how they were battered with incessant 200kmh winds for six hours on Monday before the storm moved away to the south-east.

"But I wouldn't be surprised if there's a few deaths," Mr Muller said.

While he was yet to talk again to the people living in their house, he was hopeful they, and the house, had survived. "We would have heard if anything happened. But we won't find out until we get back again. They'll have a few leaks, that's for sure," Mr Muller said.

Mr Muller, whose parents are Paul and Brenda Muller, is a commercial pilot, flying a 1948 Cessna 195 seaplane for his boss, American businessman, Larry Claunch.

Mr Muller said he tried to protect the plane before the family left four days ago.

He had tried to safeguard it as best he could, filling up the floats with water to weigh it down and surrounding it with heavy equipment.

"We turned it around into the wind and parked the digger and containers around it to stop it blowing away."

Yacht owners who were moored in the bay, visited about once a month by tourist ships, had been shifted to more sheltered areas, he said. But in Nadi yesterday afternoon, the planes were again flying. There was cloud cover but he estimated the winds were gusting at just seven knots.

"It hasn't even rained here. We're in a very good place here at the moment. We're not looking forward to going back."

The family's return trip would likely be by plane because the sea was so rough, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News