Cyclone Evan

 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012  Cyclone Evan

I know I just posted about our fun trip to Savai'i but I wanted to post pictures from our Cyclone Evan that hit last Thursday December13, 2012.

We had not heard anything about any cyclone until Wednesday night the 12th we had a ladies painting activity.  One of the sisters said she heard we could have a cyclone coming our way.  Another sister who has served here with her husband before said she heard that sometimes after a big storm power could be off for a month.  That was about all that was said.  No biggy!  Then Thursday the 13th as Elder Spencer and I were leaving to go to the office our Zone Leader, Elder, Gertsch, came out and told us that all mission vehicles were grounded for the day in case of a cyclone.

The power in our house went out just after 9 a.m. so we walked over to the office and they had power.  They have a big generator that kicked on so we basically stayed at the office all day.  Reed walked over to the store to buy some candles and matches because we had nothing but one small flashlight.  Around 2:30 p.m. all heck broke loose.  The wind was knocking down trees and the rain was coming so hard it was blowing in under the doors and through the louvered windows.  We kept trying to push it out not realizing that the same thing was happening at home.  Finally at 5:00 p.m. Elder Gertsch ran over here with his car and took us home.  Reed's glasses blew off his face and the wind was pushing me all over the place.  When we got home there was water and mud pouring in our windows.  Well for the next 15 hours we mopped, cleaned, mopped, tried to block the windows from letting so much water in.  (Later we learned the locals put up tarps or wood but nobody told us anything.)  We got very little sleep.  The wind blew so hard, as you layed in bed, you could feel spray hitting you.  I was afraid the wind was going to blow the windows out.  It was a long night and long day on Friday.  A lot of clean up and worrying.  We survived a category 2 cyclone and really hope to not be in anymore. 

On Saturday December 15, 2012 we decided to do some driving around.  Following are pictures we took of the destruction.  The biggest problem was the wind downed trees and then the water carried them into the rivers and they blocked up the river and it overflowed.  What a mess.  Thousands of people are displaced because their homes were totally destroyed.  The problem now is still no power unless you have a generator and clean water supplies are getting low.  A little scary.

 Half of this tree just snapped right off.  This tree is also on our campus.

The positive thing is people are out helping each other clean up and we haven't seen any looting or price gouging.  They have cleaned out their stores and houses where they can and are trying to get back on their feet.  This tree is right outside the building we work in.  They call this building the White House.

We walk across this field to get to our office.  That tree fell minutes after Reed ran past it bringing our frozen food over here to the fridge running off the generator.  You can see the palm trees blowing in the wind.

 When we first got home at 5:00 p.m. this messy green/brown water was all over the curtains and running down the walls and under the furniture.  Reed took this picture after we had already cleaned everything up once and moved the furniture and opened the drapes all the way.  We battled with this for the next 15 hours.  The water just built up in the window seal and then came over the top of the bottom louvered window.  YUCK!

You can see how far the water kept running to.  That was after mopping every hour and ringing out towels to lay them back down.  It was a long night and morning.

This tree is one we walk or drive past every time we leave our house.  It just snapped right off at the base.  This was all within 2 hours after the wind really started to blow.

 This is what our back yard looked like when we got home.  The frangi pani tree is split in half, some palm trees are down, leaves everywhere, our beautiful bougainvillea tree is ripped out at the roots behind that water storage tank.

On Friday morning Reed walked around the campus a little bit.  This is the road right in front of our office and the road coming through the gate onto campus.  This is the gate we mostly use because it is closest to our house.  You cannot see the road at all.  It is a river.

You can see that all the banana trees across the street from our work building are destroyed.  They say most the banana trees on the island look like this or worse.  Bananas are a main food source here.  They will take at least 6 months to grow.  You can see all the water running down the road and into their plantation.  This was as far as we ventured on Friday.  Finally on Saturday we could get in the car and drive around Apia a bit.

 

 This is one of the stores on Vaitele. the main road through Apia.  They are pushing out mud and water and pulling out wet things.

 This is the beach road right by Apia harbor in front of some of the govenrment buildings.

 This river runs under this bridge into Apia harbor.  You can see all the logs that have been washed down and hence damned the river.  They are saying there was also a 15 foot surge of the ocean.

The big resort Aggie Greys is the building you can see there.  Their underground parking was to the ceiling in mud and water.  You can see the broken wall and fence off to the left of the bridge.

There is still standing water all over by the river and ocean front.  Roofs were blown off and houses smashed.

You can see how brown the ocean is.  Usually this is clear blue water.

Now we are where the rivers overflowed and smashed cars, houses, trees, what a devastation.

 This picture was on the MSN news page.  We are so grateful that more lives were not taken.  The blessing is this happend before people went to bed so they could get out.  If it would have happened in the middle of the night probably hundreds of lives would have been lost.

 People who have lived here all their lives say they have never seen the river get blocked and overflow like this.  This is the worst disaster in over 100 years for this island.  We have not been to the South East side but they are saying that they got hit even worse.  There has been no power anywhere on the island since the 13th unless you have a generator.

This is driving on street three.  Apparantly on Friday you could not even get down this street so the waters have gone down some.

 This is Samoa College (high school).  It is the elite college on Upolu.  There are displaced families living in all the rooms.  You can see people and their things at the windows.

 This is the business called Scoops.  This is where we go when we want to buy ice cream cones.  You can see that they have a lot of mud and water.

We have been cleaning out our office and the whole learning center (white house).  They kept saying the cleaning people would be here but after four days we couldn't take the mess or smell anymore so we brought over our buckets and lysol and bailed water then cleaned and mopped.  It looks and smells so much better.  Last night some of the places around us actually got power so hopefully we will soon.  The five of us senior couples without power have been seing "All We Want for Christmas is our Power On!"

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  We won't blog again until after the Holidays unless something major changes here.  We are so grateful for the blessings we enjoy. We feel like we have been protected.  We still have to go through hard things but the way we handle them and trust in the Lord helps a lot. We love the Gospel and our family.  Until next time.

Love Elder and Sister Spencer