A woman who died after she was swept out to sea as Cyclone Tomas battered Fiji is being hailed a hero after she saved other family members.
Tamarisi Tabua was with her sisters and two children when huge waves swept them from the beach on Saturday as the category four storm approached the islands.
She was with her sisters, Mereula and Alanieta Evans, nephew Mesake, 10, and four-year-old niece Fulori when waves swept them into Namilamila Bay in Ucunivatu, Cakaudrove on Vanua Levu.
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Alanieta, a former national netballer on holiday from England, told the Fiji Times they would have died if it had not been for her sister who sacrificed her own life to save the other members of the family.
A tropical cyclone warning is in place for the entire Fiji group of islands and evacuation centres had been activated across the country.
Flooding, raging seas
Tomas has been hitting the Lau and Lomaiviti island groups off Fiji's northern coast, causing flooding and pounding seas.
On Monday night, it was battering Fiji's northern island of Vanua Levu. More than 5000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Vanua Levu and were taking shelter in disaster centres.
On the neighbouring Taveuni Island attempts were being made on Monday night to evacuate 18 patients from the Taveuni Hospital.
Part of the roof of the hospital was blown off this afternoon, The Fiji Times reported.
Doctors and nurses were making attempts to move patients and equipment to the old hospital building, it said.
