Cyclone Bob caused widespread damage when it hit Fiji in January, 1978.
On January 6, 1978, The Fiji Times reported about a family from Navua and their experience of the cyclone.
Daya Wati and her four young children looked at their ruined house with despair, wondering what was to be their future.
The cyclone hit Navua with gale-force winds, crushing the roof of the family home from its walls and destroying all their possessions.
Daya Wati was shocked by the events that happened on the night when her roof was blown away.
She and her sick husband were still trying to pay off a $2000 debt on their house. During Hurricane Bebe in 1973, their home had been destroyed and they had to borrow money to build another one, she said.
Inside the wrenched house, only an old straw bed and a car seat remained.
Daya Wati said at the height of the storm, she was cooking dinner when she felt the roof of her house shake violently.
She quickly got her four children ready and took them to her brother-in-law’s house nearby. No sooner had she left the house, a sudden gust of wind took the roof off before her eyes and dumped it in a nearby rice field.
Daya Wati said she sheltered with her children in her brother-in- law’s house all night. She and her family were poor.
The two-bedroom house contained only one bed and a few kitchen utensils. Her husband, Ram Kumar, who was asthmatic, could not get a job because he was ill most days.
Three of her four children went to school and there were school fees to be paid. She had no idea what was going to happen to her family but she thought there was no alternative but to build again.
In other areas of Navua, Cyclone Bob caused little damage.
A few trees fell and the river rose noticeably on the Wednesday night. Lautoka and Nadi towns were a messy sight the morning after the cyclone struck Fiji.
Broken power and telephone lines, fallen trees and branches and other debris lined the roadside in the aftermath of storm-force winds brought by Cyclone Bob.
The sea was a murky brown and choppy throughout the day and although strong winds had abated by early afternoon, shops in both towns remained shuttered and many of them stayed closed all day.
The Public Works Department and Telecommunication Department, FEA and town councils worked steadily throughout the day to clear highways and roads and to reestablish broken power and telephone connections.
The damage caused by the cyclone was extensive and a full assessment yet to be made.
Telecommunication damage was caused by falling trees which damaged aerial cables and lines, and flooding which damaged underground cables.
