Families at Lelata continue to face hardships during times of flooding and heavy rain. 

More than ten families, for example, are unable to safely access their homes when flooding hits, like it did on Thursday night this week.

Keneti Samoa, who lives there said it is dangerous to cross the river especially for the young children.

Mr. Samoa added that it has been years since they faced this problem of accessibility.

He is hopeful that the new Government will help.  

Another Lelata resident, who also had just returned from groceries shopping, said the young children cannot cross the river.

“The children attending schools are usually carried across the river by their older relatives,” he told this newspaper.

“At the moment, there is no possibility of vehicles crossing this river.

“We are used to this problem after living here for years. It is usually around the wet season that we experience flooding.

Last year, the Samoa Observer visited the Lelata Residents and an elderly father, Faavae Toso, said that he wishes he could forget a tragic incident that claimed the life of one of his family members in 2012. 

“Cyclone Evan will be an unforgettable natural disaster for me and my family because it caused major flooding," he said.

“We lost one of our own; a three-year-old child was swept away during the floods and till now, we [have] never discovered his body.

“For the past years, we have been living here and continuously been affected by floods not just around our homes.” 

Mr. Toso explained that because the path is inaccessible, their family has had to park their vehicle on one side of the riverbank and continue across on foot. 

“It was just before Christmas last year that the road we used for cars and crossing was destroyed by the river. We don’t mind leaving our cars parked far from home, because we don’t have a choice, that’s better than risking to travel across and have it swept away. 

“We are living on lands that belong to our family; we live here because these are our rights and we’re protecting it. 

“From all the years of living here, it was only the Red Cross that has helped us by donating some necessities but I have not seen any Government Ministries come back to help even though there were so many people that came for surveys.” 

He also pleaded to the previous Government to consider helping to build a bridge for them to cross but to date, no bridge was ever built. 

The elderly father at the time said the residents are in need of help because they cannot cross the river to get to their homes during bad weather conditions.

“If they can allocate funding to build a small bridge so we can cross just by walking instead of the big bridges, that’s fine. 

“Because when the river is not safe to cross, the children stay home, unable to attend school. There were times, for a whole week, our family could not buy food supplies.”

The 78-year-old also added that their main concern is the loss of another life to natural disasters. 

The Meteorological Division issued a severe weather update on Friday morning stating that a convergence zone with associated convective clouds and embedded heavy rain lies within the vicinity of the islands providing cloudy periods with increased moisture in the atmosphere as seen on latest satellite data.

The Division added that this system is predicted to increase and maintain the possibility of heavy downpours, gusty winds and thunderstorms for the group.

“As a result, the Heavy Rain and Flood Warning remain in effect for all of Samoa.”

The potential impacts include: heavy downpours with poor visibility and gusty winds, foggy and slippery roads over mountain passes and ranges, pooling near roadsides and waterways. River overflows and landslides.

The National and Emergency Operation Center (N.E.O.C.) has activated the setting up of three evacuation sites in Apia in preparation for potential flash floods in the low-lying areas of the capital on Thursday evening. 

Residents living around Leone, Vaisigano, Matautu, Lelata and Levili have been advised that they can move to the National University of Samoa (N.U.S.) compound at Vaivase. 

As for those residing in Fugalei, Taufusi and Lalovaea they can evacuate to the Adventist Relief Agency (A.D.R.A.) compound at Lalovaea.

The third evacuation site is at Gym 2 and the Multipurpose Hall at Tuana'imato which will be made available for people residing in Vaimoso, Siusega, Alafua and Pesega.