THE memory of terror is as raw as the day it happened.
Former Penang High School teacher residing in Wairuku, Rakiraki, Kamal Kishore and his late wife were alone in their family house near Naqoro when Cyclone Winston tore through the province, walls shaking, roofing iron screaming in the wind, and debris smashing around them.
The house, built by his father’s decades of hard work, felt fragile against the cyclone’s relentless force.
With most of their workers away and no one nearby to help, the couple faced the terrifying possibility of being crushed or swept away.
Every gust carried the threat of disaster.
“I kept thinking if something goes wrong, no one would be able to hear us,” Mr Kishore recalled.
“This house is our family home. I did not want to lose it.”
Hours passed like lifetimes. Outside, neighbours were not as lucky – roofs ripped off, homes destroyed, families left homeless in the storm’s aftermath.
The roar of the wind was punctuated by the sound of metal and timber ripping apart, leaving residents clinging to hope and prayer.
When dawn broke, the Kishores survived, but the town bore the scars of devastation.
“We survived, but we will always remember that day when we almost lost everything.”
