Floodwaters rise on the main shopping street of Nandi, Fiji, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Pita Ligaiula) By Eric Leister, Meteorologist
Mar 30, 2012; 9:20 AM ET
A tropical low pressure brought widespread flooding to parts of Fiji from Thursday night into Friday. The hardest hit areas were on the western side of the main island Viti Levu where the town of Nandi has been cut off from other parts of the island.Nandi, home to Fiji's International Airport, received over 11 inches of rain since Thursday, with rain still falling across the area on Friday night. The slow movement of the tropical low will result in a continuing threat for locally heavy rainfall through the weekend and possibly into early next week.
The heavy rainfall caused most flights to and from the International Airport to be canceled on Friday, while hundreds of people were forced from their homes and many stranded on rooftops.
The National Disaster Management Office says the water levels from this flooding event are higher than the flooding in January which was responsible for 11 deaths.
Other local communities have been cut off by raging flood waters as rivers overflowed their banks, forcing most schools to close on Friday.
No deaths have been reported thus far; however, life-threatening flooding will be possible through the weekend.
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