In the Eye of the Storm
A timeline
BACKGROUND: While
it’s hard for us to make an accurate estimate of how many people were effected
by the devastating cyclone, what we do know is that Dineo made landfall just
north of Inhambane City where we live, alone the coast of the Indian Ocean late
last Wednesday, Feb 15th. According to the National Institute of
Disaster Management, 20,000 homes were destroyed, with over 650,000 people
affected. The city was struck by high winds, torrential rain, and rough sees.
There were also a number of schools and health centers destroyed. Mozambique,
one of the world’s poorest countries, is now battling to rebuild. Working with
the Mozambican, we are doing what we can with funds from the ECHO Project—a
part of African Outreach Ministries. We are mainly cutting down trees—many that
have crushed home—as well as rebuilding the houses of those in need.
Feb 15, 6:33 pm GMT
+2
I'd like to ask for prayer not only my family, but for
the people who are facing this tremendous cyclone here in Mozambique. The
cyclone is a type 2 and so far has ripped tiles off of the guard roof, solar
panels off our roof, and a few other casualties. We have very limited remaining
electricity and are holding the fort (literally) as best as we can. So I would
like to ask for prayers over this cyclone as we know it is destroying houses
and roads, causing flooding, and taking lives. We are blessed enough as it is
to not have our house blow away. Constant prayer would be really appreciated.
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| Rural school that lost its roof. |
Feb 16, 8:08 am
We made it through the night. It was a bit scary, but
we're fine. Some damage to our house, mainly roof tiles, our hot water solar
tank fell and shattered, half of our solar panels flew off the roof, one
walkway veranda covering blew off, and lots of trees limbs broke. But many
people in our neighborhood--and beyond--lost their roofs, so clearly lots of
damage especially with all of the rain. The main cell phone service is out,
though we still have internet for now on another carrier. Water is out as well,
and electricity is out in places, though we don't know how extensive.
We are planning to organize some teams to send out and
help clear roads--lots of trees down--and help with roofs once the roads are
passable, (right now our only road out is blocked in multiple locations) we
will take teams out to the villages to help as we can.
If you would like to donate money that we will use to
help with roof supplies, roads, etc, in the churches and in our communities,
you can donate to the ECHO Project, and we will funnel the money to help the community
here. Please send us an email if you give, or mark online that it is for
Cyclone Dineo Relief.
Thank you for your prayers!!
 |
| Hundreds of tree fell during the storm, especially the cashew trees |
Feb 16, 5:22 pm
Prayer Request: We've got a friend trying to source us some things
in another town including nails for roofs and one or two gas chainsaws. With so
many fallen trees and no power, this is a huge need. Please pray that he can
find some of the things we need to help those struggling right now in our
community.
Feb 16, 7:54 pm
Some cell
service is back and I have had contact with Frank out in Guinjata. A lot of
damage to homes, even to the crops. One lady from the Guinjata church had a
tree fall on her house. She is a widow and takes care of a lot of children. The
ECHO project sends her food each month to help sustain her. We will be sending
food out to her as soon as we can get out those roads. The ECHO project will
also plan to build her a new home as soon as we can. Pray for Helena and the
children tonight...
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| Woman sitting outside their compounds |
Feb 17, 10:15 am
First of all a huge thanks to all of the comments and
notes we've received from people praying for this part of the world!
Today's praise is that the sun is shining and we've
had no rain. We've spoken to friends in South Africa where the rain was
supposed to be extremely heavy as the downgraded cyclone moved across SA, but
they didn't get much either. So one, this means people aren't having to deal
with repairing and replacing roofs in the rain, and two, we will hopefully
avoid the devastating flooding that comes to Moz when certain South Africa's
rivers flood.
Water is still out at our house, but I spoke with a
neighbor and theirs is on, so at least that is progress. Power seems to still
be out in our area as well, though I'm not sure if parts of the city and
surrounding areas have it yet or not. Cell/internet service is on and off.
We're running half our solar panels--the ones still on the roof--which is
giving us enough to charge our fridge (though not 24/7) and keep things charged
like our phones, computers, and neighbors' phones.
Scott and David are out this morning with teams
starting repairs. They found one chain saw and bought it, but it won't work, so
they are still looking. We have a friend who found one south of us, so
hopefully he can get that one to us today along with some of the other supplies
we need.
Please continue your prayers!
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| Flooding in town |
Feb 17, 1:32 pm
Scott spent two hours trying to buy a chain saw and
some basic tools this morning, only to find out that the chainsaw--the only one
we could find in town for sale--didn't work. Thankfully, a missionary friend
three hours south found one and is bringing it to us this afternoon.
They started working in town to salvage a bedroom
belonging to several girls in a compound. The girls actually slept there last
night, even though there was a coconut tree that had crushed it. They had to
cut up the tree with an ax, removed two walls and the roof, managing to safe
two of the wall. Now they will clean the area and put in new posts, but will
wait for the chain saw to do any more cutting down of the trees in the
neighborhood, as it is so much work to do it by hand.
This afternoon, they will start on a couple more
houses that were severely damaged. With so many people affected, the rebuilding
will take time. Please pray as well for the weather, as it is predicted to rain
again tomorrow which will make the rebuilding much harder.
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| A coconut fell on the room where several girls slept. Thankfully they were already up when it fell. |
Feb 17, 4:52 pm
Yeah! We finally got our chainsaw. This is going to be
such a huge blessing. And a huge thank you to Franco for transporting it here
for us!!!
Feb 17, 8:17 pm
The team helped Isaias move his things to his mothers
after his house was totally destroyed. With the chain saw, we can now go out
early in the morning and start cutting down trees. Also have been able to
source nails and other local building materials to help with the re-building.
 |
| The rebuilding begins. |
Feb 18, 7:19 am
I've had a number of questions on how to give to the
ECHO Project to help with the rebuilding after Cyclone Dineo, so I'm sharing
how below. We were able to source a chain saw for $500 and are finding that
even some of the local building materials like the woven palm branches used to
build walls have almost doubled in price. Even so, through the ECHO Project
funds, we will continue to help as many people as we can.
There are two options for your tax-deductible
donation. Use the Pay Pal link below, or send a check made out to African
Outreach Ministries to:
Creekside Church
ATTN: Greer Yeldell
5401 E. Hwy 287
Midlothian, TX 76065
Write ECHO Project in the memo.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support of
the ministry here!
 |
| The gas chainsaw has been a HUGE blessing. We've gone from house to house cutting up fallen trees for people. |
Feb 18, 9:36 am
We have water!! David called early, early this morning
to let us know the water was on. There wasn't enough pressure to get to our
house, but Scott managed to get about 6 gallons of water from a tap at the edge
of our property before it ran out. Don't think I've ever been so excited about
doing dishes! About an hour after we finished days worth of dirty dishes, the
pressure increased and the water came on at our house! Next on the to-do list
is clean laundry! Praising God as well that there is still no rain, which means
clean up is easier and our solar will charge.
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| Rebuilding |
Feb 18, 6:15 pm
Another busy day! While some of the brothers worked to
rebuild a fallen house, Scott and Franco walked through the neighborhoods and used
the chainsaw to cut down around forty trees.
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| Cooking hut about to fall over after the storm |
Feb 19, 3:02 pm
Despite the destruction, I was so blessed by the
testimonies at church. So many thought they wouldn't make it out alive. They
shared their stories of how God protected them. One widow had a tree fall on
their house. She had to cut it away to get her children out. Then the next room
they went to lost the roof. But none of them had even a scratch on them.
Those
of you who have been to visit us will recognize many of these places. While
we've been in contact by phone, today we went out to visit the Guinjata church.
We will take teams out there as soon as we can
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| Rebuilding a widows house |
Feb 20th 1:30 pm
After two days of using
the using the chain saw and dozens of trees cut down, the blade is already
dull! Searching for a place that has electricity who ca sharpen it.
 |
| Flooding in town |
Feb 21, 9:48 am
Here's the team on their way out to the Guinjata area
to help a couple of widows in our church there, as well as to help as needed in
the community. We've discovered that in town seems to be worse because of the
high density of houses. A single tree there can easily hit two or three
compounds, while out in the villages the compounds are spread out meaning less
damage.
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| This is what is left of Isaias' house. |
Feb 22, 3:59 pm
The team headed out again to Guinjata for the second day
where they started building a house for one of the widows in the church.
Yesterday they put up the frame and today they almost completed all the walls.
The plan is to return tomorrow to put on the roof.
While the group was finishing the house, Scott and one
of the other brothers worked to cut up a number of cashew trees that had fallen
in the compound of another widow. (And BTW Scott's body isn't keeping up with
all he wants to do, meaning he's been reminded more than once lately that he's
50 now!)
Scott also received a phone call from a lady
representing City Hope Disaster Relief that is run out of a large church in
Durban. They are looking for a partner on the ground to send relief, and are
ready to send ten food pallets, roughly 20k meals. They also talked about
sending a team next week to help, and Scott asked if they could bring more
chain saws to help with the clearing thought the neighborhoods, particularly in
Inhambane City. Please pray for wisdom as we work out the details of this help.
We also heard from some of the brothers in Zimbabwe
who were also effected by Cyclone Dineo. They had major storms, flooding and
lightening. In some places people were even evacuated by army helicopters.
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| Team that went out one day. |
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| Debra after the cyclone |
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| Here are some of the girls whose room was crushed. |
