After spending a few hours running around the warehouse in Dubai packing the vital IT equipment needed to respond to Tropical Cyclone Winston, Rob Buurveld was soon settling in to an 21-hour trip to Fiji.
A senior IT specialist in the Fast IT and Telecommunications Emergency and Support Team (FITTEST), WFP IT's emergency response team, Rob was deployed to carry out a number of critical assessment missions spread over three groups of outer lying islands which saw the full impact of Winston’s power.
More than 14,000 kilometres later and jet lag kicking in, Rob was driving along the usually scenic King's Road on the way to the capital, Suva. Under the scudding skies of South Pacific, the impact of the cyclone, two weeks ago now, began to unfold: trees were down, electricity masts battered and many houses damaged.
"Driving from Nadi to Suva on the north side of the island, some parts reminded me of what we saw in the Philippines," Rob says over the phone from Fiji. “I’m on my way now to do some ICT assessments on some of the outer islands – that’s the heartland of the real impact of the cyclone.”
It’s true. As one of the strongest storms to ever hit the South Pacific, Winston tore westwards through the islands, wreaking havoc in everything in its path. And as the most experienced FITTEST members who has worked in some of the most devastating disasters, including Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Philippines and Haiti, Rob knows that what he’ll find on more remote islands will be much, much worse.
Once the assessments are done over the next week or so, the results will be presented to the Government of Fiji who are leading the response.
"There isn't a huge need for telecommunications from our side as the government here is so strong in emergency response. They are really on top of things so we are carrying out assessments on the situation out in the field and report back."
In a twist of irony, an experienced WFP guy had arrived in Fiji shortly before the cyclone. The reason? Emergency preparedness activities.
“It just really shows how important ICT is in terms of preparedness. What’s funny is that Mike (WFP focal point in Suva) had arrived in Fiji just a week before the cyclone hit to do emergency preparedness. So a lot of the stuff he had been planning to do, such as building good relationships with the government, have sped up now. It’s too bad the emergency didn’t happen three months later as then, everything would have been in place but…” Rob tails off as jetlag takes over and there is a lot he needs to do before venturing off to the outer islands for two weeks. “This is nature; you can’t time it.”
