Emergency Evacuation

Posted by Kipp:

Last Tuesday, we were relieved to hear that the major Typhoon Kammuri, which hit the central Philippines had passed through the Philippines.  We were grateful that we had only experienced mild wind and only a bit of rain.  We had  been concerned about our departing missionaries and new missionaries being able to fly on Wednesday morning, but the flight wasn't cancelled, so we continued preparing.

Departing Missionaries

New Batch!

It started to pour on Tuesday night.  It poured basically all day Wednesday, and all of Wednesday night.  We said our goodbyes to the departing missionaries and welcomed our new missionaries under umbrellas, but all was well.  Unbeknownst to us (or anyone else apparently), the tail end of the northeast monsoon and a cold front were causing all the rain.  All of the rain caused the Magat Dam to approach it's limit, so officials decided to let some water out of the dam, sending a shock wave of flooding up the Cagayan River.

Meanwhile, Sister Trinidad (whose companion is Sister Trinidad) finally settled into her bed for her first night in the mission field.  At 3:30 AM her three roommates awoke to find a foot or two of water in their house with the water rising.  The water level outside their door was even higher.  Sister Trinidad (the new one) was so exhausted that she continued to sleep on her floating mattress!  When they were all awake, they scrambled upstairs, taking as many of their belongings (including their refrigerator) with them as they could. Once upstairs, they called Elder and Sister Allen, who are assigned over housing, then waited the night for rescue.  The Sisters serve in Alinguingan, a very low spot and close to the river, so we assumed that this would be the extent of the flooding.

When Elder and Sister Allen arrived, they found many residents of the town standing along the highway with their belongings.  They couldn't get down to the apartment to get to the Sisters, so he told them to stay put and came back and set out to trying to find a boat.  Finally, when we couldn't find a boat, Elder Fryer, their District Leader, and his roommates, rescued the Sisters by floating them out on their wooden beds.

Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council for our young mission leaders.  We went ahead, thinking that this was an isolated incident, and that we would still have most of the missionaries in attendance.  The ones coming from Tuguegarao were on a bus that might not get through, but the rest would be fine to come.  The Tuguegarao group arrived late, with photos of the flooding along their route.  Throughout the meetings, we kept getting more and more reports of missionaries flooded out of their apartments and wading in waist-deep water to safety. 

refugee truck

At 3 PM we looked at the forecast of three more days of very heavy rain and another opening of the dam, and determined to evacuate most of the north half of our mission.  Most missionaries in harms way were in Tuguegarao, 2.5 hours north of Cauayan.  I left Cauayan in a van with a limited plan,  one of the Tuguegarao Zone leaders, the Assistants in a crew cab, and a rope to pull out one of our vehicles if we got into trouble.  As we went through Enrile, the highway was under 2 feet of water, but we got through (nothing short of a miracle).  As we went over the Buntun Bridge (the last road open into Tuguegarao), we noted that the water that is usually 30-40 feet from the bridge deck was now 3-4 feet from the bridge deck and still rising.  We determined to evacuate as many as we could get (leaving those cut off from us reaching them by high waters to sleep in a local chapel (6 Elders did)).  Most of our chapels are built on high ground, so they are good evacuation centers.  We left Tuguegarao with 14 in the van and 9 in the crew cab truck.  As we returned to the flooded road in Enrile, the water had continued to rise.  Police had closed the road.  We were trapped and faced the prospect of all 23 of us sleeping in a chapel.  70 missionaries in the Loaog Mission, who were also along the Cagayan River, spent a couple of nights in a chapel.

Enrile road

Enrile road

Happily, the police determined that buses were high enough to get through.  As a bus came through, we quickly bought tickets and stuffed 19 missionaries on the bus headed to Roxas (part of the way to Cauayan).  As we stood determining what to do, the police agreed to let us try to get through.  To say it was exciting, creeping through those flood waters with the water just below the tail lights of the van, would be an understatement.  We made it!!!  Never ever would we have gotten through those flood waters with the vehicles fully loaded with our missionaries.  We can only attribute it to a watchful God that we had to unload all of our missionaries just before the reaching the flooded area.  We raced ahead in the dark to try and catch the bus before it got to Roxas.  Happily, the bus often stops to let people on or off.  The only excitement came as we raced along in the dark. We came around a very sharp curve in the road (of course going too fast) and almost hit a very large cow who was also fleeing the floods.  Good thing those brakes work so well.

Refugees in Cauayan

A few of the missionaries had only the clothes on their backs and their 72 hour kits, but all were safe and accounted for.

Found clothing in the clothing bank!

moving mattresses (dry) to provide beds for the displaced missionaries

This missionary's friend loaned him a pair of pants!  Unfortunately his friend is much shorter than he is!
We will just call them "flood pants"!

Friday, the flood waters went down enough so we could go get our missionaries who were cut off by floods and sleeping in chapels.  Donna and the Senior couples prepared for the evacuees; where they would sleep, what they would eat, and where they would work.  They found clothes for the missionaries that need them in the missionary clothing bank we have in mission home.  They did a great job.  By Saturday morning, the forecasted rain had not come.  The water had dropped.  The Senior couples headed out to see what the situation was with the flooded apartments.

Elder Kirby going through his bag to see what can be salvaged.

All missionaries have now returned or will soon be returning to their areas and have some great stories to tell.

heading home

One of my favorites was 4 Elders bragging to me that they lifted their empty refrigerator up 4 steps out of harm's way (which was high enough to save it).  These Elders include a military man, a football player and a 6' 7" giant.   I told them that little Sister Trinidad and her 3 roommates, who do not have a total body weight between them of 350 lbs, got their full refrigerator all the way to the second floor!

The missionaries are now wearing yellow "Helping Hands" T-shirts and assisting in the cleanup (65 homes of members in Alinguingan and many more in the communities to the north were badly flooded).

I know that God watches over his young missionaries carefully.  I have watched it.  I also know that God loves these young missionaries.  He lets me know that all of the time.  It is a blessing to watch miracles in their behalf.  I love this assignment!