Typhoon 2009

Nobody was expecting a months worth of rain to be dropped in 24 hours but it happened. When the rains started that Friday night we didn’t think anything of it. We are in rainy season so we are used to rain coming down all day long for several days in a row. The difference this time, was how hard it came down. I didn’t even know we were in a typhoon. There was no wind, just tons of rain. On Saturday, the street in front of our house looked like white water rapids. The water was easily 6 inches deep as it rushed past our gate and down the hill. We lost power around 3:00 PM, it was daylight still so we just kept doing things without power. The main streets of Antipolo were flooded with neck high waters. For the next 24 hours, we remained trapped in our house with no power. Thankfully, our house and the clinic suffered no water damage because of there location on the mountain side.

While all of this was going on, our neighbors (the Ortiz family – Mom, Dad and three kids under 10) were in Manila visiting with a friend who was in town for Compassion International. They tried to come back to Antipolo but found the roads flooded and impassable. They ended up staying the night in their friend’s hotel room. The kids liked it since they had cable TV but mom and dad were stressed out about how to get home! They had to stay another night in Manila at a missionary’s house before they could get through on Monday. When they finally got back they showed us pictures of the devastation. On Ortigas, the road we most often take into Manila, the flood waters reached the second floor of many houses (18-25 ft high). The military was helping with rescue operations so there were tanks and other military vehicles lining the streets. Some of the Ortiz extended family lived in that area and they lost everything. The other road, Marcos Highway, that takes you to Antipolo was flooded also. People were being ferried back and forth on boats. One missionary had to get on a boat to get to the hospital where their daughter was suffering from appendicitis. The entire missionary community was a buzz with talk of all the flooding and how they can help. Many missionaries had to, first, take care of there own flooded homes before they could help others.

By Monday night, we had our power back and we were working to figure out how we could help. Hundreds of thousands of people had been displaced from their homes and Val knew that many more would soon be getting sick from all the contaminated water. We had heard of a couple of places in the province that were hit pretty hard with land slides so the clinic planned a trip to the province to provide medical relief. Manila was getting a lot of press and assistance, so we felt we could help most in the areas not so visible to the media. On Wednesday, the clinic staff met and discussed where to go on Thursday to help. We sorted medical and food supplies that we would load first thing in the morning.

Thursday morning we drove about 45 minutes outside Antipolo to an area called Baras. As we drove out we passed bulldozers working to remove mud and debris from the roads. Our destination was a small daycare building where several families were living that lost everything in the flood. One family there lost a total of 8 family members (this is the family that we wrote about in our newsletter). The family took us to the site where their houses use to stand. They said it was a small creek before the flood, but now it was a raging river. You would have never known that houses had stood there - the area was bare. Everything had been washed away! The team treated several families that were still in that area, using a covered porch of one shack as the medical area. After treating these people, we returned to the daycare building to treat the other families there. Word had gotten out that a medical team was in the area and soon there were crowds of people seeking medical care. One group gave out tetanus shoots to the men dredging the river for bodies while the other group gave medical care to the women and children. In a few hours we had exhausted our medical supplies and told many patients to come by the clinic the next day and they would be seen there. Before we left, we passed out some food and cooking oil and then we prayed with the families who lost everything. It was a very emotional day. We all debriefed over a late lunch and then headed back to the clinic to unpack.

Since then, many of the patients have returned for follow-up visits and they are doing better. There are still many people with needs in the area and we are seeking Gods guidance as to how we can be His hands and feet in this crisis. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers during this disaster.