A FIJIAN mother rescued from a terrifying ordeal at the height of Cyclone Winston's attack on her village is to be reunited with her son, who is making a mercy dash from his Masterton home on Sunday.
Inia Katia, who plays rep rugby for Wairarapa-Bush, is flying to Fiji to comfort his mum and to help out the village as much as he can.
![Flattened buildings dot the landscape of Inia Katia's home village. PHOTO/SUPPLIED](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/AAX5FVG7GRW2QLEP7EV6EQVVLU.jpg?auth=d7e76b23d3c3a2ff3c7d825ccb948669e30f67fe20e1bf55d6c888be9d66a26c&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
His mother Amelia is lucky to have lived through the battering the cyclone inflicted on Koro Island, among the hardest hit islands when the massive Winston made landfall in late February, wreaking havoc on the 14 village settlements including Naqaidamu, the home of the Katia family. Swamped by a tidal surge as she battled her way to the supposed safety of the village church as the storm tore roofs off houses and flattened them, Mrs Katia, 52, was swept away but managed to grab a breadfruit tree and wrap her arms around it.
There she stayed, alone, for two hours, holding on for grim life, knowing if she loosened her grip she would be swept out to sea and lost.