A COMMON concrete bathroom, measuring 2×3 metres, that is even deemed uncomfortable for five adults to be in at one time, saved 22 villagers of Nasasaivua in Kubulau, Bua, at the height of Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston.
The villagers escaped from their village evacuation centre when the newly-constructed hall began to give in to the ferocious winds. Young and able-bodied men helped the elderly and children as they made a dash — amid flying structural debris and crossing a waist-deep flooded drain — for the only structure they believed would save their lives.
In what they described was the longest 30 minutes they had ever experienced, villagers — comprising women and men and children, the youngest an eight-month-old baby — were squashed tightly, stagnant and shivering in one position inside the bathroom.
They covered themselves with blankets against the piercing rain, at the same time praying with their every breath that no structural debris land on the roof-less structure.
Villager Peni Waqamaira, 28, was among a few other men who took charge that February 20 afternoon in guiding and assisting the other villagers to safety.
He said a little after 2pm, pieces of corrugated iron were already loosening from some rooftops.
Most of the villagers immediately vacated their homes and headed for their hall with necessities.
An hour later, he said, the roof of the hall began to rip off the beams when Severe TC Winston was at its peak.
Mr Waqamaira said they had just opened the door of the hall when they saw the roof of one of the two churches in the village, on a hill, being ripped off from the beams and thrown up in the sky.
He said in midair, the roof tore up loudly into single pieces of tin and timber and flew in different directions.
The only structure standing at the time was the concrete bathroom, located about 50 metres away, and a flooded drain to cross. When the wind eased, he said, they moved to a nearby double-storey house that had the bottom floor still safe but with broken windows.
Young men quickly made a fireplace and boiled water for tea and steam bath, particularly for the elderly and the children.
Meanwhile, at the height of the strong winds, four young men forced themselves into an old metal water tank and were saved.
Seventy-four-year-old Varanisese Drodro, originally of Matacawalevu in Yasawa, escaped underneath the floor of their home with her son Rupeni.
Mr Waqamaira’s parents hid under their bed, cushioned with bags and baskets, and were kept safe when the walls of their home collapsed.
