A man in his 60s who was reported missing yesterday morning in Savusavu has died, as three people remain missing and 14,000-plus people are still sheltered in more than 400 evacuation centres across the country.
The latest casualty is a 67-year-old farmer who was reported missing while trying to cross the Bagata River as Tropical Cyclone Ana exited Viti Levu but remained in Fiji waters yesterday.
A joint search team made up of police officers, villagers and members of the community recovered his body this afternoon. Police are still to confirm whether he would be regarded as a TC Ana casualty. But, if so, he becomes the second person to have died in the height of TC Ana.
TC Ana claimed its first casualty on Friday, 29 January 2021, a 49-year-old man who drowned in Nadarivatu. He reportedly drowned near Waikubukubu village.
To date, three people are sttill to be accounted for including a 3-year-old boy from Lautoka who was reported missing on Friday and two men from Cikobia who were reported missing two days earlier, on Wednesday 27 January 2021.
Two others who were reported missing from Vatuwaqa on Friday, when they did not return from a fishing trip near Nukulau, have been found. Police said they were safe and sheltered in Dravuni village in Kadavu.
Meanwhile, as of midday today 14,322 people were still being sheltered in 406 evacuation centres across the country, with the North evacuees making up 50% of total evacuees spread over 182 evacuation centres – which surpassed numbers at the height of TC Yasa at 75 evacuation centres and 3,534 individuals.
Latest TC Ana evacuation stats provided by NDMO showed that westerners made up the second-highest number of evacuees at 4,218 in 95 centres followed by Central at 1,947 in 99 centres and in the Eastern Division, 954 in 30 centres.
