17 Dec 2009

4,000 people in Fiji displaced by cyclone

9:27 am on 17 December 2009

More evacuation centres have opened in Fiji to cope with the estimated four thousand people now displaced by Cyclone Mick.

Monday's tropical storm is believed to have caused five deaths.

The deputy representative for UNICEF in the Pacific, Tim Sutton, says flood waters in Nausori, in the south-east of Viti Levu, have ruined crops in an area already flooded in January.

Mr Sutton says damage is widespread.

"We know that the Yasawa Mamanuca in the West, those are the offshore islands. Lautoka and Ba and two big cities on the northwest coast of Viti Levu, the main island. And the area through Pacific harbour, Suva, Nausori in the southeast corner of Viti Levu particularly hard hit."

Tim Sutton says the polluted flood waters in Nausori are of particular concern to medical staff in temperatures of up to 33 degrees.