Constancio B. Lim who served as a counselor in the Mission Presidency when Sister Elggren and I were there wrote the following to us: November 7th, A day before the typhoon made its landfall to leyte, my family and I decided to evacuate at the Tacloban stake center. There were 279 individuals (more or less 75 families) who went to the stake center until that night. Others also came in late that night that were not accounted. Out of the 275 individuals that evacuated to the church, only 78 were lds. It was a peaceful evening but at around 5:00AM of the following day, we started to feel the winds starting to get stronger as well as the rain. The covering on the eaves side of the stake center near the mission office started to fall off. The strong rains then started to get through the ceiling of the relief society room that swiftly causes the acoustic boards to fall off after being soaked to waters. Finally, all the eaves covering were completely removed that made more damage to all the acoustic boards of the stake center. The strong winds and rains lasted for at least 3 hours. Most of the people get panicked after noticing that the flood water is rapidly raising outside the chapel and its forcing itself to get inside the building. At an instant, the flood water inside the chapel were as high at 2 to 3 feet. Considering the stake center is elevated, I imagined that the flood outside may have been as high as 8 feet. 2 days after the typhoon, I was told after visiting an lds family that evacuated in nearby 4-storey building, that the flood water 20 feet high because it already reaches the second floor of the said building. The storm surge was even higher than a 2-storey house alongside the coastal area of Tacloban city! I feel the Lord is cleaning the entire city of Tacloban. It was a horrible thing to witness the ravaging typhoon but more horrifying to see its aftermath effect. Just outside the church wall fence, you will see dead people that might have been drowned early that morning. Many building and houses destroyed. Inside the stake center the people stayed the whole day up in the ceiling of the church. And before the night came that Friday, the flood water receded and the entire flooring of the chapel were covered by at least 6-8 inches thick mud. We checked our 2-sacks rice, 4 boxes of noodles, canned goods and chocolate drinks only to find out that they were soaked in the flood water . We cooked what can be cooked in the church. Some families including us managed to bring 72-hour emergency kit that helped to feed us and some families who dont have anything to eat. I tried to do my best to cheer up those in the stake center and to provide them with food. After 5 days of stay in the church, most of the evacuees started to leave including members of the church. I have learned that a free airplane ride (C-130) going to Manila and Cebu are available for people who would like to leave Tacloban. Many people are leaving and almost all of the evacuees in the stake center already left except for 3 families who decided to still stay in the church until they can have a chance to take a free ride going either to Cebu or Manila. The roofing of our house was gone , all our belongings were wet but we managed to wash some clothes for our use. November 13th, I talked to Pres. Andaya (Tacloban MP) if he would persuade the rescue team from the area office to give us a free ride going to Manila the next day. We slept at the mission home on November 13th and we left Tacloban 10AM of November 14. 3 families are still in the Church because they have no house to return to and the flood is still high in their area. I met all of them and gave them instructions and told them that i will relocate my family to Bataan but that I will be back as soon as i can. I still cant believe such disaster will happen to us but Im glad eve though the typhoon destroyed our homes and properties, it strengthened our faith. All of us in Tacloban learned wonderful lessons which we could not have learned if we did not experience such powerful typhoon. I will still return to Tacloban to extend whatever help I can afford and I will let you know when I returned there. I will let my family say here in Bataan until new year because it will take some time before electricity will be restored including the rehabilitation of Tacloban. We are glad they are OK.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 01:47:11 +0000
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