We had a tropical cyclone scare yesterday. It started with a lot of rain, and people in town were stocking up on their emergency supplies of tuna and candles. People had started tying down loose boards and covering their windows with sheet metal or plastic, anything they could find. Peace Corps consolidated all the volunteers, and for a while there it was pretty scary, as the winds picked up and the lights went out and weather guy on the radio kept repeating "DO NOT leave your house, Hurricane Daman is expected to hit Savusavu directly...."

This is what the news said:

"A destructive category four cyclone with winds gusting up to 275km/h is barrelling towards Fiji, sparking the evacuation of tourists and some flight cancellations.

Cyclone Daman has rapidly strengthened from the lowest category one to a "top end category four" storm, with an average wind speed of 195km/h.

Vanua Levu, Fiji's second largest island with a population of about 360,000, is expected to begin to feel Daman's full force about midnight (2300 AEDT Friday) when it makes landfall."

But the cyclone took a swing to the northeast and dodged us completely, and so we were left, excited pcv's drinking wine by candle light on the floor of my house... releived, yes, but I'm not going to lie...a little bummed that we didnt get in on any of the action.