AIR FREIGHT AND ANGELS

Several people have commented and asked for updates on the relief efforts following the tsunami here in the Pacific. I can’t begin to pass on all the stories and information we have heard, but can give a run down on some of the basics.

(These pictures were taken from stories run in the Deseret News in Salt Lake City)

This DC-10 cargo plane arrived in Apia, Samoa this week, loaded with 78 pallets (60 tons) of emergency supplies. Islamic Relief Worldwide, whom the church has partnered with in other disasters such as the tsunami in Indonesia a couple years back, volunteered their help to the church to get this plane load of supplies to Samoa. It is estimated that these supplies will be enough for 2,000 people for three to four weeks, to deal with the immediate emergency.

Although the plane was loaded using forklifts and other machinery, it had to be unloaded box by box, bale by bale, in Apia. Their ground machinery wasn’t tall enough to reach the cargo in the plane, so everything was unloaded by hand and loaded onto trucks.

Among the goods shipped were wheelchairs and crutches,

bales of clothing,

canned foods, hygiene kits, bedding, mosquito nets, water containers.

One of the ground crew in Salt Lake City helping to load the cargo was a young Samoan who had lost eight family members in the disaster. He scribbled messages of love and encouragement on some of the boxes before loading them. It must have been some comfort to him that his help in loading the plane would be of direct impact to his people. The government emergency disaster committee and the church are working together to make sure the supplies are distributed to those in need.

In American Samoa, the Church facilities employees dug several “long drop” pits in some of the temporary tent cities and built outhouses over them to serve as toilets. A big concern is always disease in emergencies like this. The dead have now been buried and clean up has begun to dispose of the fish washed up, animals drowned, rotting vegetation and other debris that would encourage disease. The government is giving tetanus shots to those with open wounds. There are so, so many angles that must be addressed!

At 4 a.m. one day last week, 700 men gathered in Apia to organize themselves into work parties. Their job was to begin clean up along the shoreline and villages of the hardest hit area. All were wearing their yellow Helping Hands vests. This “sea of yellow”, as it was described, went to work! Can you imagine the difference that 700 strong men can make in a day?

Now to report on the tiny Tongan island of Niuatoputapu and the “angels of mercy”, the two sister missionaries that I mentioned in the last post.

(These pictures I pulled from an internet blog post of a couple who traveled there in their yacht earlier in the year - thanks to them for their pictures.)

Teeny, tiny island of Niuatoputapu as seen from the top of a nearby volcano

Medical clinic pre-tsunami

Schoolroom, also pre-tsunami

Students in their school uniforms

The thousand or so people of the island lost about 90% of the homes, their tiny medical clinic, schools, water pumps, etc. There are only three villages on the island, and two of them were very hard hit. The third was on a little higher ground and was not so devastated.

A government crew from the main island was sent in by ship to repair the airstrip and communications. The mission president chartered a plane as soon as the airstrip was open again so he could get in and get to his missionaries and to assess the damage and determine how to best help there. He took in two strong young elders with him to help begin the recovery efforts. Two more young elders will arrive by boat shortly to help as well. His intention was to take the sisters out of their devastating situation and reassign them elsewhere. But when he arrived he was met with more than a little opposition. Although only a small percentage of the people of the island are members of our church, the residents had banded together to petition the president to let the sisters stay. They had been “angels of mercy” to more than just the old man mentioned before. The island clinic had been washed away, so the sisters set up an emergency location in the church building, which had escaped damage. There they cared for all the wounded and their families, treating them as best they could, preparing meals and providing comfort. These two young Samoan girls then took on the task of preparing the nine victims of the tsunami for burial. Their service and love and encouragement was for everyone. So it’s not surprising that the decision was made to leave them there to continue their work among the residents of that little place.

Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga, is about 600 miles of water away from Niuatoputapu. Immediately after the disaster, the stake presidents in the area around Nuku’alofa put out a plea over the radio and TV for relief supplies for the people of the island. A French ship in port in Nuku'alofa offered to take supplies to the island the next day. In that 24-hour period, a warehouse was filled to capacity with clothes, food, bedding, pots and pans, tents, anything they could think of to help. Those goods have reached the people now and helped to relieve some of their suffering. It will be a major effort to rebuild their lives, but they definitely have a place on the world map. Help is coming from all over.

Meanwhile, the disasters in Indonesia and The Philippines have taken a much grimmer toll and the devastation is so much more complete. What we have seen and heard about here is just a fraction of what those others are suffering and will continue to suffer for a long time to come. It’s almost impossible to imagine how they will rebuild. Where to begin? Their death toll is in the thousands, where ours is under 200. Yet to see how countries all over the world respond is amazing.

I can’t even imagine the relief we’ve seen coming out of Salt Lake for this tsunami being repeated for multiple, much bigger disasters. And yet the supplies just keep going out. Right before we left to come here, we toured Welfare Square and the Humanitarian complex in Salt Lake City, and it’s just unbelievable that the Church has put together something like the Welfare system that can respond within days of a disaster anywhere in the world. We saw it in our own backyard in Houston during the hurricanes. Truckloads of bottled water, tarps, generators, wheelbarrows, chainsaws, gasoline, food, etc., either stored in place or in trucks poised to drive into the disaster the minute it was over. It’s been impressive to see what can be done.

Out of the suffering and sadness and devastation, there are still stories of hope and love and service. May we all be aware of what we can do.