Grandmother of three Sereana Naivou of Lovu Seaside in Lautoka was among the first people to move her family to an evacuation centre yesterday as heavy downpours caused massive widespread flooding across the country.

After seeking shelter at her daughter’s home on Saturday night, Ms Naivou said she was greeted by waist-deep water inside her home when she returned on Sunday morning.

“By 8am I was walking into my house with water up to my waist,” she said.

“From Saturday night, I could tell from the amount of rain that we were getting that my house would be one of those that will have water coming in.

“So this morning, with the cyclone yet to come, I knew we had to move.

“My neighbours are moving to the centre with their children.

“They decided to move when they woke up this morning and found their nine-month-old playing in the water that came into their home.

“A lot of us have faced this before, so we knew that if the rain keeps coming down like it did today (yesterday) then everyone has to move.”

She said military trucks were deployed to their settlement to assist in moving the young and the elderly along with their belongings.

By 2pm yesterday, a total of four evacuation centres namely Lovu Sangam Primary School, Lautoka Primary School, Lautoka Methodist Primary School and Lautoka Andra Sangam Primary School were activated for affected households.