Sacramento-Area Fijian Community Rallying After Cyclone Winston

ELK GROVE (CBS13) – It's news that you're never ready to hear: Your home country devastated by a tropical cyclone. Then you learn that your friend is five thousand miles away, right in the middle of it.

Three local men say the last 24 hours have been nothing short of shocking. Seventeen people are dead after Cyclone Winston's wrath.

From their Elk Grove living room, Sanjay Sharma and his friends survey the damage.

"This is probably one of the worst that has ever hit the country," Sharma said.

Less than 24 hours earlier, a Tropical Cyclone ripped across the island of Fiji.

The scariest part? Knowing their good friend and golf buddy Sanjay Singh was in the middle of the storm.

"He's been updating us pretty well. I mean, he's been on the Facebook, sometimes we send him messages saying 'Are you safe?' He says, 'Yeah don't worry, I'm okay,'" Sharma said.

Unable to reach him by calling, they use their phones to scroll through unbelievable images.

"This is my family member's house in Ba, which is very badly damaged," Teddy Ram said.

It's been years since Teddy left his home town in Fiji. But Sunday night, his heart is in Suva City.

"We don't have much connections right now since cell phones are out," Teddy said.

For Teddy, his brother Rakesh and friend Sharma, the closest they can get are these pictures on Facebook.

"We constantly are looking for anything that we can see and hear from the folks out there," Teddy said.

"A lot of schools, they don't have roofs on them," Sharma said.

Fighting that sense of helplessness, they're already thinking of what they can do for their friends and family struggling so far away.

"We are still waiting on him to come back, join us and then we figure out a plan," Teddy said.

They're just starting to put together the details on their fundraiser. But early estimate puts the damage at tens of millions of dollars.