Responsible citizens would use “common sense” to prepare before a disaster – and they would take a disaster kit, including two to three days’ worth of food to evacuation centres, should the need arise.
Minister for National Disaster Management Inia Seruiratu said this at a ministerial media conference yesterday where he also said that no politician should dictate to the Government the work they must do to assist those affected.
“This has been our consistent advice to the public for years due to the difficulties and uncertainty of reaching cyclone-affected communities within the first 48 hours of a disaster.
“Our priority is to get relief supplies to families as far as this can be done. But there are serious hazards to our frontline officials in the immediate aftermath of a storm.
“Rivers are sometimes too swollen to cross, oceans are too rough to traverse.
“Fallen trees and landslides can block off entire roads. We all know this.
“We have all seen these for ourselves, and then a politician who has never crossed those swollen rivers, cut through those fallen trees, or bravely set out amid tidal swells after a storm, has no business telling the Government what is safe for our officials to do.”
