Rains have eased over storm-ravaged Fiji, giving locals a much-needed reprieve to start cleaning up swamped homes and businesses.
The clouds parted briefly on Thursday in the tourist town of Nadi on the west coast of the mainland, Viti Levu, for the first time in almost a week.
Locals have taken to the streets to shovel piles of rubbish and putrid-smelling mud out of houses and shops as the beginning of a long clean-up expected to take several months.
More than 300 businesses were affected in the town, with authorities saying most had no disaster insurance and would not be reopening.
The damages bill for infrastructure alone is expected to exceed $20 million, and the leading industries of tourism and sugar cane have been hit hard.
The National Disaster Management Office has confirmed the tropical depression, which has been loitering over the country since last Friday, had claimed 11 lives so far, with one person missing.
Principal officer Joji Satakala said that despite the repeated warnings, local people had been risking their lives by trying to travel during heavy rain.
"Lives were lost because of carelessness and ignorance," Mr Satakala said.
Almost 10,000 people are now staying in temporary shelters set up in schools and churches.
The self-appointed prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, has raised concerned that about 500 of the displaced are not getting access to food and clean water, the Fiji Times newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Australian and New Zealand tourists are weathering the rain in hotels in Nadi and popular resort islands around the mainland.
The Fiji Weather Bureau says the weather system is improving, and a cyclone in January is now "very unlikely".
However, a flash flood warning still remains for low-lying areas of Viti Levu and there is a narrow rain band and trough of low pressure that will move over the island.
Front page
RSS Feed