Typhoon Pablo

The R family heading home after the evacuation

 In light of the news I just saw about the tragedy in Connecticut, our trials here on Negros seem hardly serious.  We are so grateful that the people here on this island are all safe, the families we know lost no one to the typhoon, and the damage is all repairable. Although, those on the southeastern island of Mindanao , the large island just south of us did not fare so well.  Many hundreds lost their lives, and there was terrible destruction to property as well.  In the face of such devastation, we wish we could hold each of our children and grandchildren tight tonight, like Pres. Obama envisioned.  We count on you to do that for us and for each other.  We pray mightily for the families in those communities who have lost so much. May God fill their hearts with love and peace and the strength to reach out for help and support rather than allowing hatred or malice or despair to do further damage.  I hope they can picture a whole world of people helping them to hold and carry their grief, not just as a media event, but as mothers and fathers all over the world, who are stopping to mourn with them. Because that's what we are doing.

Two mango trees topple on the M's house

And still we will report on our island in the typhoon last week, though with renewed perspective. You might think that typhoons are normal here, and they are, but the big one last year with its crushing landslides and heavy rains and flooding and then this “super typhoon” last week, with its quick destruction and furious winds, are both way beyond normal.  The old folks in this area say there have never been winds this strong in their life time.  The high winds caused much death and destruction on the windward Island of Mindinao, and usually it stops there, but this one gathered its strength back up over the short ocean distance between, and did a lot of damage on our side of Negros as well.  Huge, ancient trees were torn out by the roots.  We drove past one behemoth spread prostrate across the road, and a woman in our car said, “I remember playing in that tree on my way to school.”  The next day we drove past again with her father, and the man said the same thing his daughter had said about this old friend that was now crushing a small store across the street.

The good news is that this storm was predicted better and the warning was communicated better, and the timing was not as difficult as last year— when the flooding hit violently and unannounced in the middle of the night.  This time, church leaders had time to get permission to open the buildings for people to evacuate to.  And so people came in the afternoon and spent the night-- members of the church and neighbors--all sheltering and being fed while the worst of it blew over that evening. Some went home the next day to no damage, some went home to roofs blown off or trees uprooted and crushing their homes, but no one was hurt.

Actual loss seems less than from the flooding last year.  Last time everything just literally washed away or covered in mud. This time it was mostly structural damage to buildings from wind or trees as well as some major crop damage to rice and bananas.  A banana farmer in Mindanao lost 90% of his crop. In our area it was more like 50%--still a big blow.

The road is now passable

Old trees just couldn't withstand the wind

Of course there were those who did not evacuate.  The missionaries were all told to get home and stay put. And they were all safe.  Some members, in hind sight, should have gone but didn’t, thinking it would be okay to stay home.  It turned out not to be our dear Branch Pres., who lives right across the highway from the open sea, texted us at about 6 pm to please come help, his roof was giving way.  He was there with his wife, mother-in-law, little nephew and new baby huddled in the house with the winds raging and the rain pelting face on.  We got in the truck and headed their way, but within a hundred yards for our gate, on the highway was a massive tree.  We drove round the top end of it and came across another within maybe 50 more yards.  This one had a power line tangled in its branches, but it looked like we might be able to get under the line and around the tree.  As we tried to assess it, people came out yelling to us to move, pointing to another tree that was very precariously creaking and swaying, right over the truck.  We high tailed it back and hunkered down in our house, but I had to cry as I texted President that we couldn’t get to him.  I pictured how they might be faring in the fierce wind and rain that was now beating horizontally on our window and forcing rainwater into the unsealed windows and doors of our comparatively tight house.  They eventually got an emergency vehicle to come get them to a shelter in the next town.  We saw the next day that limb that was over the truck did indeed come down. 

It is safe as long as the car in front of you doesn't spark.

Then at 9 pm, when I guess the eye was going quickly past, and things had eased a bit, we got another emergency text.  Please come help.  Brother A and his wife and 4 kids had lost much of their roof, were being battered by rain and wind, and were expecting the worst still to come.  They live way up hill from the sea, so they had not thought to evacuate. Since they lived in the opposite direction from our earlier failed attempt, Elder Cropper thought he might be able to get to them.  He went to the church and picked up brother E and brother J who he knew were there with their families and who he knew would help.  They couldn’t make it up the main road, so turned onto a side street and found that road with a tree blocking it.  With his trusty saw, they cut that tree apart and moved it off the road to find another bigger tree blocking the road. They back tracked and found a way back to the main road and a second detour to Bro. A’s turn off.  Trees and power lines were blocking that road but with a little muscle they progressed only to find banana trees across the road.  With a few hacks of the bolo knife (machete) and a bit more muscle they were moved.  It is a good thing Elder Cropper has a lot of muscle.  Coming to a place in the road that was flooded, they waded through knee deep water in the darkness with the wind blowing.  The A family had made it down quite a ways off their though their own detours-- mud, downed trees and swollen creek.  The men got them back to the church safely and Elder Cropper got home soaked and tired but safe and sound.

In the middle of the night we both woke with a start.  There was no sound.  It is NEVER silent here.  Trucks rumble all night down the highway near our house, roosters crow, lizards “tika” pigs squeal, and often the rain falls on our metal roof and can get really deafening, and the wind often howls.  But at about 3 am on the morning after the fiercest typhoon in memory, everything stopped.  Trucks could not pass, animals were silent, no wind, no rain.  It was eery, but we felt so grateful to be together safe and soundless.  It meant the worst was over.

 Mango trees didn't fare so well. Not enough root structure.

Everyone lost electricity for a time, many lost water.  It all came back slowly, small area by area, until about 10 days later we could see that all the communities had lights back on.  The clean-up was immediate.  Trucks came from other towns (Bais, Manjuyod) that were not as badly hit with chain saws to help the towns with the most damage (Dumuguete, San Jose, Amlan, Tanjay), and by the early morning hours—still dark— the main roads were passable.  But people are still repairing, shoring up toppled bamboo walls, replacing neepa roofing, applying tarps for temporarily keeping dry.  For some it will take months to come up with the funds and the man power.  But Filipinos can do more with a broom and a bolo (machete) than you can believe.  As we would drive up and down the highway in the next few days, hundred foot tall trees, which had crashed and spread over several yards and buildings would disappear into tidy stacks of firewood in a few hours.  We hardly got any pictures of the destruction cause it got cleaned up so fast to let ambulances and buses through.  People are still sweeping, and back to daily routines.

Missionaries pitched in to help folks, the local leaders sent in reports for assistance from the area authorities, relief goods got distributed, but all this sets people back, yet again, in a place where there is little slack to take up.  But no one complains, the sisters resume practices for the dance they will perform at the Christmas party, the 40 foot Christmas tree in the Plaza at Bais was put back to rights, the shops in Dumuguete were packed today, 2 Saturdays before Christmas.  As always, life goes on.