Flash flooding in Honiara

Somebody has played a terrible April fool’s joke on the Solomons. The ‘happy isles’ are in a state of national emergency, after extensive flash flooding on the afternoon of Thursday 3^rd April.

The flooding washed away entire communities and has severely damaged/ destroyed vital infrastructure.  To my knowledge, the event has been covered well in the New Zealand and Australian media. So, rather than give you the general details of the situation in the face of conflicting reports, I’ll tell of my experience -the facts of which I am certain.

The Mataniko River in flood, Chinatown below, Honiara to the left and Henderson Airport to the right.

 On Thursday it had already been raining for three days solid. I was at work in town on the fourth floor, we had spent the morning putting buckets under the drips and etc and rescuing computers from water that was leaking from the ceiling. Fairly standard stuff for the Solomons. So we didn't notice that the wind was now coming up, and rain intensifying. The power went out at about 12.30, which in itself wasn’t very alarming. So oblivious, I just continued with work.

Houses that survived the peak of the floodwaters along the banks of the Mataniko.

At about 1pm I heard from other Volunteers that there was flooding, and to consider going home, soon after I was contacted by the VSA in-country manager and asked to evacuate immediately. Luckily I had my running shoes with me, I put them on and left the building.

 In order to get to my house I needed to cross the Mataniko river, a kilometre North of central Honiara. There are two bridges across the Mataniko, one 'temporary' single lane WW2 Bailey bridge with a single central pier and the ‘main’ bridge; a two-lane threespan concrete bridge.

The Chinatown Bailey bridge before the floods.

...And after.

Firstly I went into the City Council to collect another kiwi volunteer (my housemate) who works there. I encouraged him to come with me across the river on foot and home, but he elected to wait for a lift, I did not protest and left immediately.

I got halfway to the Bailey bridge before the river was visible. It was just beginning to break its banks, and the bridge deck had water washing over it. It was only really at this point I realised how serious the situation was.

The view to Chinatown today across the river. Our house is on top of the hill behind

Without too much deliberation I crossed the main bridge.  On the other side, there were people trying to pull their longboats out of the rising waters. I helped, with loads of other people,  pull a few boats up onto the road. Then we saw a woman and child rush past caught in the river. The group abandoned the boats and rushed across the road, through the riverside settlements, trying to get to the riverbank or beach where we might grab them somehow, but it was useless.

The Mataniko today from the mainbridge.

After those first two, I saw maybe 15 people get washed out sea. There wasn't anything we could do without a rope. The flow was too strong and full of debris that jumping in was out of the question. The water was still coming up and I thought the bridge might collapse. Along with some others we tried to close the bridge, we succeeded for maybe 5mins but there wasn’t much we could do to stop the people who really wanted to get across.

In the end I decided to go up the hill to our house and regroup. Three of my other housemates had made it home, and we watched from the balcony as the river tore through the villages by the river I had just been in. The Bailey bridge was swept away but the main bridge did not collapse.

Debris and a ship washed ashore at the central market

Since then, we have for the most part, remained in our house. Our fifth housemate was stuck on the other side of the river, at a safe house for a couple of days but has since made it across. Amazingly the power is back on and the cell network is still running. As refugee centers and aid stations pop up in the next few days hopefully there is opportunity to assist with a more coordinated relief effort. For now donating food and sanitary supplied to collection points is all we can do.

North abutment of the main Mataniko Bridge. You can see where the bank used to be marked on the concrete abutment.

When the rain stopped yesterday I managed to get out and take some photos of the damage. The floodwaters scoured out the North abutment of the main bridge, all but separating the bridge deck from the North bank. A ramp has been put across the gap and essential vehicles and pedestrians are still being allowed across.

Found these guys playing in a drain on the side of the road. The spirits here are still high!

The people here are amazingly resilient. The feeling on the street is overwhelmingly positive. I fear now with so many people displaced, and living in even more confined conditions, dysentery and dengue fever may be the next thing to worry about.