ondoy - Day 4 & 5. cleaning out the mud.
ondoy - Day 4 & 5. cleaning out the mud.
Day 4 & 5
Day 4 & 5
(Click above for day by day accounts and photos of the week Typhoon Ondoy stopped Manila)
[posted by Jess]
Tuesday morning I woke up to the sound of
birds chirping. The sky was blue and the sun
shone brightly . . . but the world below was
covered in mud. The clean up would
seem impossible. Many homes had been
filled nearly to their ceilings with rushing muddy
waters, and now thick layers of mud still clung
to walls, floors, cars and belongings, adding
to the stress and dismay of those who already
lost so much.
With school closed an extra day,
I took our teenage boys and a few
of their friends to help where we
could. We had heard about
Riverside Village, one of the harder
hit areas. For them, the problem
was much worse than mud. A
factory in a nearby town sustained
damage to a storage tank of oil,
spilling it all out into the water
which flowed through Riverside..
As we ventured through town, it was not hard to imagine that the street we were driving on had
been a raging river a few days earlier. The evidence was everywhere.
At left, a car that had been carried by the flood is
smashed against a pole.
At right, piles of debris covered the sidewalks,
items that had once lined shelves of the stores
and businesses on this main road.
Below, we see part of a worker on the left side
(wearing orange). He is laying out important
documents to dry in front of a local Bank.
A week ago
these were
shiny new
bicycles for sale
Wondering
why they didn’t
wash away?
Because the
bikes were
actually INSIDE
the store at the
time. Even being
indoors wasn’t
enough to avoid
this mud.
Just outside Riverside Village, people waited in long lines for relief goods, carrying their umbrellas to shield them from the sun. We asked one lady later on how long she had been waiting. “Five hours !” she replied, and she still had a ways to go.
Then we began to see the oil.
Lots and lots of oil.
It coated the walls, plants, and cars.
You can tell how high the water level had been
by the horizontal bars of dark brown muck. The
water level at the town home below was roughly
12 feet deep. Good thing these families here had
second floors.
Vehicles did not escape.
It’s heartbreaking to see this little guy, but
the good news is that he survived!
Wiper fluid alone won’t do the trick here.
Inside, mud that had entered despite
locked windows and doors remained long
after the water had disappeared.
Yes, that IS water you see
in this headlight, and it’s now
the third day after the flooding.
One family started to clean their car
but then stopped. Perhaps they
will wait to see if it will even
start first. Apparently, there Have been
a few cars so far that started up after
a good engine cleaning. Though it
seems a great many are wasted.
We parked and visited the homes of
some fellow missionaries in the area.
First The Sacks, then The Bells, and
finally the house of Ms. Tully.
When we arrived, other kids and
missionaries from Faith Academy were
already there, shoveling out mud from the
house. They had removed all the furniture
and put them in the yard.
The sight inside the home was unbelievable. We are so thankful to the Lord that Ms. Tully was
not home during the storm and happened to be at a missions retreat about 2 hours away. Hers
is a SINGLE STORY HOUSE, and I dare not think what would have happened had she been home.
Our missionary kids quickly went to work. Our
God is so awesome - He moves His people to
accomplish His will for His purpose. How blessed I
was to be there.
Work continued through the next day
(Day 5, Wednesday) when we heard school
was canceled again.
After these first two days, there has been
much progress! However . . . Ms. Tully has lost
pretty much everything else! She will need to re-buy
her clothing, appliances, furniture . . . etc.
We are trying to clean and salvage as
much as we can, but she will need a lot
of prayer from God’s people.
And Ms. Tully is just one of many.
Will you PLEASE PRAY for the following missionary
families who need to replace a lot, if not most, of
their things: In Riverside: Ms. Tully, The Sacks,
The Bells, The Milliers, The Jordans, The Bhenkens.
In Town and Country: The Millers and The Jo’s. In
Marikina: The Neiblings. In Brookside: The Kuikens,
The Ruiz’s, The Sparks, The Malessa’s. (these are
the families I know of so far). We ‘ve also heard
of many of our students being affected, pastors
and their families have lost all their things.
PRAY FOR THE THOUSANDS OF OTHERS IN THIS COUNTRY WHO WILL NEED TO REBUILD THEIR LIVES. They have lost homes, loved ones, and peace for a while to come. May they find hope in our all powerful God.
After a day of grime and debris, this is what I found lying on our bed when I got home.
Our little sleeping beauty.
Isabella had been playing
dress up in her hand-me-down
Princess costume and decided
to take a nap in it.
Ahhh . . .
how refreshing it is to be
home. What a stark reminder
of how incredibly blessed our
family is . . . when countless
others have lost so
unbelievably much. Truly we
don’t deserve such grace!
Day 4 & 5