4/3/15
Typhoon!!! I've always wondered what it would be like to
experience a storm so big it deserved a name, and now I can say that I have.
Chuuk had been experiencing a bit of a dry spell when the principal came to our
door late Saturday night and told us that there had been a typhoon warning put
out. With a growing tropical storm headed my way, I began to feel a bit
nervous… images of the destruction caused by different typhoons and hurricanes
filled my mind as I tried to get to sleep.
During the night the winds of Typhoon Maysak grew
stronger and stronger, buffeting the windows and howling through the trees, and
sleep didn't come easily. A gray sunrise welcomed in the next morning, and it
felt like the morning of doomsday – there was that feeling of the peace before
the storm in the eerie wind. Kind of creepy! The power was out, along with the
internet, and so we pulled out the propane stoves for breakfast as the winds
grew ever stronger.
It was about 11 o’clock when the main force of the
typhoon arrived, and for a bit it was exciting. Some of us gathered up on the
porch of our apartment to document the adventure. Before the internet went out,
I had read online that the winds of Maysak were expected to reach speeds of 74
MPH, and I didn't doubt that possibility. The winds threw the raindrops into
our eyes, and bits of broken leaves and coconut fronds flew through the air.
The rain fell in torrents, and quickly overcame the draining system. Parts of
the school property were soon flooded and filthy water poured into the lower
classrooms. Some of our neighbors came over to wait out the storm in one of the
classrooms, since their home wasn't very storm-worthy, which is the case with
most of the homes here. Mecha and I headed over to the high school building to
get a different view, and before she made the dash up the stairs to join me
there was the sound of crashing and scraping and a couple screams as she
narrowly dodged a flying piece of roofing as long as a middle school student.
These typhoon winds were no joke! The storm became a little less exciting then.
At the corner of the building is where the full force of the winds could be
felt, and so I was only there for a little bit, but it was SO strong! My voice
was futile against the winds, and my clothes were plastered to my skin. Coconut
trees bent almost in half, rooftops were torn from houses, and the waves were
all white-capped. I noticed that the Odyssey,
a luxury diving ship, had be moved from Blue Lagoon in hopes to protect it but
was being tossed like a toy boat in the waves. Later I learned that it and four
other large ships had been wrecked during the typhoon. I could see the gusts of
wind, and quickly headed back to the guy’s apartment where all the teachers
were joining together for songs and prayer.
The worst of the typhoon lasted until around 6
o’clock that night, and we worried for our neighbors, Yap, and the
Philippines as Typhoon Maysak continued on its way there, pulling up more water
and gaining strength. But the storm wasn't over, and rain and fierce winds
continued to buffet Chuuk for the next couple days. There were five fatalities,
and the destruction was awful. I made it to town on Thursday, and it was still
a mess – many houses were roofless, some even completely demolished, and trash
was everywhere. On Paata, one of the outer islands, there was only one house
that remained standing. The power lines and poles that the construction workers
had been putting in were floored, and we still don’t have internet or power on
this side of the island, so we've been using a generator to for a couple hours
at mealtime. Which sort of fulfills my curiosity about what it’d be like to
experience a long power outage; except for we have a generator so this doesn't
really count. These last couple days we haven’t been doing a lot after cleaning
up the school campus, and we ended up having a week-long spring break (though
it would have been nicer to have a break without so much heartache and
destruction).
4/6/2015
We had our first day back today, and with no surprise many of the students didn't show up. Many of their homes have suffered a lot of damage, and they stayed behind to help rebuild or watch younger siblings. A couple days after Maysak went through principal told us that there was a tsunami warning that had been put out, but that warning was retracted (Actually the exact wording he received was that the tsunami had been 'canceled,' which I didn't know was a thing, haha)... and the another typhoon they were saying might come hasn't, so we're thankful for that!
So anyways, that’s just a little bit of what
Typhoon Maysak was like, and I’d like to ask for your continued prayers for all
the people affected by the storm. And hey, now I can say that I have gone
through a typhoon, and survived!!
