ABOUT 300 students and workers at Moto in Ba had to return home yesterday morning after a blocked bridge prevented a public bus from transporting them to their destination.
Moto area advisory councillor Arun Sharma said Moto bridge was covered in debris as a result of flash flooding.
"We experienced some heavy rain at around 2am and by 4am (Wednesday), the Moto bridge was flooded," Mr Sharma said.
"There are about 250 schoolchildren that go to school in town and of course there are about 100 workers and business people that live in our area, so they could not go to town this morning (yesterday)," he said.
Mr Sharma said many of the stranded passengers had no choice but to return home.
He added that the bridge near Toqe that was also used to access Balevuto was flooded as a result of the heavy rain.
Toqe village headman Epeli Nasova told The Fiji Times that about 10 primary school children from his village could not go to school because of the flooded bridge.
"The current was still very strong this morning and the water level is still high. Fortunately none of the houses were flooded," Mr Nasova said.
However, he said some livestock were swept away by flood waters.
Meanwhile, the Nadi weather office has advised people not to panic over the recent spate of adverse weather conditions in Fiji.
Nadi Weather Office director Alipate Waqaicelua said there were no possibilities of a major flooding in the country as a result of heavy downpour in the past few days.
Mr Waqaicelua said an active trough of low pressure moving across Fiji brought rainfall over most places.
He said people needed to be aware that the rainfall was outside the cyclone season and they should be prepared for this kind of weather.
"People should also be disaster cautious and take heed of warnings issued by the weather office."