When tragedy strikes

By HELEN TARAWA
SOMETIMES the animals and birds can indicate to us if an impending disaster is about to happen. Some people may have weird dreams that they might link to some unforeseen disaster about to befall them.
A few days before Cyclone Guba devastated Northern in 2007, the shrill calling of the insects and birds in the surrounds were louder than usual. For the Mt Lamington eruptions in 1952, I heard stories of two women sensing that something was about to happen early that morning.
One who was up at three that morning to pray had a sudden urge to pray for all her family.
Another had a paranormal encounter before the mountain blew its top at six that morning where, still in her sleep, she awakened the rest of the household with her screams because something was trying to choke her to death.
Most other times there is no forewarning at all and something terrible just takes everyone by surprise.
Just after 3pm on January 9, Northern experienced one of its worst road accidents when a truckload of passengers, headed for town at high speed, slammed into a larger truck that had crossed onto their lane at Pekuma Corner. Of the 23 passengers, 13 lost their lives.
For the villagers at Timbeki in Sohe District, the day started out as a normal Monday morning. I spoke to some of the women who were left widowed after the crash at the hauskrai at the Council Chamber Hauskrai last month. They had gone about their usual chores of gathering food and doing the laundry in the river and didn’t think that they’d lose their husbands that day.
Ilma Kaita left her husband asleep at their house when she went to the river to do the laundry just after midday that day. She didn’t realize that he would leave for Popondetta (town) after she left.
“I was still by the river when I heard the news and I went to town to the hospital to confirm his (her husband’s) death. Another woman, Donna Kakamu also recalled how she and her two children had gone to the garden. Her husband was at home then but planned to go into town to sell betel nuts so he could buy some food for the family.
“We were in the garden when we heard that Oivo (the name of the PMV) had collided with an Oil palm fruit truck. It was late for me so I went the next day to see my husband at the hospital. The husband lost his life.
Cynthia Sauta asked her husband to get some betel nut for her father while on her way out to the garden that morning. While she was away, he got the nuts but decided to take them into town to sell.
“I did not know he had gone into town with my son. When I returned home I heard the news and when I came into town I saw my son.” Cynthia’s husband survived but they lost their young son.
Alma Ojari said her husband, Richie Conrad, was trying to sleep off a bad headache when his cousin came round to their house and urged him to get some betel nut so they could take it into town to sell.
“I cooked for my husband and told him to eat but he insisted on going into town as it was getting late.” A few hours later, Alma was told that he was also a victim of the car accident. Rhoda Penunu from Agenahambo said her son Kay had told her that he was going to visit his cousin at Timbeki village.
“I did not know that they had gone to town, all I knew was that he was visiting his cousin at the nearby village.
I was shocked when I heard that he had died in a vehicle accident.”
Aida Ondire and her husband Livai had planned on going into town but she didn’t feel too well. She suggested to her husband that they wait until the next day but when the PMV arrived at the village with the horn blaring, her husband decided to get on with their 10kg bag of betel nuts while his wife stayed back.
Aida was in her garden when news of the accident reached her.
“When I got home (from the garden) the whole village was deserted as everyone had left for the crash site so I decided to go into town.
“There were no vehicles on the road, I walked quite a distance out onto the main (Kokoda) highway and caught a PMV and went into town to see my husband’s body.”
Daniel Hara’s wife Doreen and daughter Prisendra Penunu (8 years) were going into town when the crash occurred.
“I told them to stay home while I went to the garden. I did not know that they had gone to town to do shopping.
“When I got the news I went to the hospital, my wife survived but my daughter didn’t make it,” Hara said.
Villagers in the Middle Kaiva area in Sohe dominate the betel nut cultivation and trade in Northern with their villages are surrounded by what seems like a plantation of endless betel nut trees all around.
Most of the victims on that day were on their way to sell the nuts at the market in town because it was a generated income and made ends meet. Vehicle Crash Victims Working
Group Committee spokesman Charles Jasari said there had been no major incident involving the betel nut trade up until then.
“Traffic police have been doing a good job managing the vehicles along the road except what we have now experienced is the worst road accident in the province,” Jasari said.
Because the collision involved a New Britain Palm Oil company truck, the committee petitioned the company for, among other things, K50 million in compensation for the death of the 13 victims.
On January 18 Popondetta town came to a standstill as business houses, residents, government offices, the market closed their doors to accord their respect to the 12 bodies which were taken and handed over to the families.
All along the highway from Popondetta to Andarituru junction, people decorated the road and stood by with flowers to farewell the 12 caskets that were accompanied by officials including the two members of Parliament, Delilah Gore (Sohe) and David Arore (Ijivitari), public servants and the people of Oro.
Prior to that, a brief funeral service was held at the Resurrection Cathedral in Popondetta by Bishop Lindsay Ihove. The caskets were driven in a convoy of more than 20 vehicles to their respective villages.
Most of the victims were from middle Kaiva, Barewoturu, Huhuru, Agenahambo and Timbeki villages.
At the Sumbiripa junction on the Kokoda highway, the officials farewelled Philippa Jimmy’s the casket to Huhuru and the convoy proceeded to Timbeki.
People of Timbeki from children to the elderly were all dressed and painted in mud as they welcomed the 12 caskets accompanied by officials, police, public servants, family members and people from other parts of the province.
Gore and Arore each presented the families of the victims with food and K5,000 to assist them with their respective hauskrais.
The 13th victim was Sohe district treasurer Gilbert Manduru from Tufi whose funeral arrangement was organized separately by the administration and the Finance Department.
It was a sad day for the people of Oro starting the New Year 2017 with a catastrophic ‘manmade disaster’ ‘as it was being referred to by many.
The accident can only serve as a reminder for us to not rush things in life but to take time to think things and plan properly before taking the next step.