More Cyclone Gita Damage

House on Bypass Road which we pass every day

The night of the storm there were about 9000 people staying in LDS chapels. The government was steering people to these chapels because they are the strongest in the Kingdom.

I heard on the news that due to Tonga strict laws prohibiting shopping on the Sabbath, preparations for Cyclone Gita were hampered. I do not think this is the case. The storm was supposed to hit Sunday, but instead came in force on Monday night, giving the people time for preparations. The storm's fury only lasted about 5 hours, rather than the expected 12-18, thus minimizing damage that could have come.

I read that there was not a single death in this severe storm. There were 30 people seriously injured and 3 were hospitalized. The Lord answered our prayers and minimized injuries to the people.

I believe the Lord blessed this Kingdom of Tonga because of the people's dedication to keep the Sabbath day Holy and their love of God and family. 

Sopu

I would say 50% of all homes were damaged or destroyed. Many people live in homes constructed in a make-shift manner of poor quality materials. Thus, damage was great on the island.

The day after the hurricane, people could be seen cleaning up their yards and communities. PTH, the local hardware, is full of people buying supplies to repair their homes. The people are industrious, not only fixing their own homes but their neighbors as well. 

Downtown Nuku'alofa

Roofs are made of corrugated steel. The hurricane winds tore many of these roofs off and threw them about. 

There is much corrugated steel wrapped around poles, left in piles, and even high in the trees. 

Flying debris and fallen poles caused electrical wires to go down. 

Near Sia'atoutai Theological College

Almost no homes have electricicity, including downtown. Few have emergency generators. So the work of recovery is done in the daytime. We at Liahona do have an emergency generator so our lives have not been altered too much. Most homes also do not have potable water. We at Liahona do have good water and use a filter in each of our homes. We either take that water in bottles with us during the day or drink bottled water purchased at stores. Internet is off and on here at Liahona, nonexistent elsewhere.

Sister Thomson couldn't resist. She had to climb the tower!

 Water towers toppled with the hurricane winds.   The two tanks in Veitongo crashed down, one   even the tower twisted and crumbled and is a   total loss. The tank in Lotohapai blew off. Two   tanks in Houma down. One each in Fahefa and   just a little further down the road in Kala'au.    Another blew over in Malepo. Another in   Nukunuku. LDS Charities will be putting these   tanks back up. 

  Other tanks may be reported. Any more needing   to be replaced will have to wait. The last of the   10,000-liter tanks on island have been lifted in   place. Some tanks can be repaired.

Banana plantation after Cyclone Gita

Papaya fruit clings to the tree.

As you can imagine, winds damaged most of the vegetation. Banana trees did not fair well. Almost all on the island are gone. There will be no bananas for months to come.

Papaya trees often are seen with the fruit remaining, but no leaves.

Free Church of Tonga

     
            

This is the beautiful Free Church of Tonga in Kanokupolu. It was built in January 1885 and had survived many storms.

Side view of the church

We have driven by the church before and heard amazing singing from inside, but no more.

Then came Cyclone Gita. The historic little church could no longer sustain the fury of hurricane winds.

View from the street

This village is on our way to our favorite snorkeling beach, Ha'atafu Beach (AKA Surfer's Beach).

We will be saddened each time we drive by. It was a sight I looked forward to whenever we drove through this village.

Cyclone Gita - Popua

Family receiving food in Popua

Much needed food supplies were today distributed to impoverished families in Popua, who were left living under tin sheds or damaged houses by Tropical Cyclone Gita last week.

Food Bins were given out to 10 families by Ni Fonua from Seattle, Washington, who is in Tonga to start a Tonga Film Commission.

His campaign aims that for 10 weeks they will pick ten most affected families and supply them food that should last for up to 10 days.

Families like ‘Ofa he Lotu and his wife Mapui Folau were emotional  expressing their non-stop gratitude, when the team suddenly turned up with the supplies this morning.

'Ofa said their small house was completely destroyed and they are now living under a tin shed.

"Our town officer had given us a tent but we told him to give it to those who just had nothing to live under. We are poor but we have this shed and the roof is still intact," he said.

"You all see the state we are in right now. Our house is down but at the same time there are more worse-off families than us here in Popua."

                                                                                                                       Article from Matangi Tonga News

We took food to a family in Popua a few days before the cyclone. This is a very poor area of Tonga. Saturday Elder Thomson and Brother Huni are going to Popua with manioke and casava from Huni's plantation. I am sure the people will be thrilled with the Tongan food which they are used to cooking. 

1 WEEK POST CYCLONE GITA

Since the cyclone a week ago, a lot of the heavy work of clearing and cleaning has been done. Some people have started rebuilding their homes, while others continue to wait for tents and tarpaulins for temporary shelter.  LDS Charities has given away over 300 tarpaulins and 25+ rolls of heavy black plastic, each of which covers about 6 homes. LDS Charities has chainsaws and generators out in the community being put to use. One generator in Ha'alalo is running the water tank which is run by electricity, which of course is out. Red Cross has provided tents, tarps  as well as other needs. 

Some homes still have whole or partial roofs uncovered, while others have used aid tarpaulins or their own materials to cover their roofs. The sound of generators, chainsaws, chopping, drilling, sweeping is now the norm as people are continuing to clean out their houses and yards and trying to get back to their normal everyday living.

Ha'alalo

SisterS Thomson and Zemp

Elder Thomson using bush knife

                     

Elders Busby and Zemp

The day after the storm, the Busbys and Zemps joined us to help clean up Ha'alalo. Bishop Latu Timote Tuiasoa had asked if we could come join his ward. 

LDS Charities had loaned out chainsaws and bush knives to most of the stake presidents for use in their cleanup efforts. 

We helped at 4 houses: One was a widow with children living with her mother.

Sisters Busby and Zemp in pig

At one home, the men in the community used chainsaws to cut up trees that had fallen in the hurricane.

We hauled the branches off to the designated area ... a pigsty. Sisters Busby and Zemp were real troopers, they were the ones in the pigsty. (They volunteered.) The rest of us dragged the branches to the pigsty and they hauled them to the back of the pigsty and stacked them.

Even the kids helped out. They loved being a part of the cleanup.

       

Matahau

Next day, more of our senior couples joined us in helping clean up in Matahau. What fun we had working with the locals as they cleaned their yards.

 

         Sister Oldroyd                                    Elder Oldroyd                               Sister Heiner

Elder Murdoch

Sister Busby

We love our senior couple missionary friends. They asked if we had any projects they could help with, and then they pitched in!

Many of these couples work at Liahona Schools teaching the teachers. The school was closed because of damage so these couples were eager to help.  Elder Oldroyd teaches the auditors. He too had some down time while the locals recovered from the hurricane.

Liahona

The campus suffered much damage. (Comment: nearly a month later - I have asked Brother Parr the estimate of damage -- he said over $7 million). The school principals kept the dorm students busy helping with the clean up. The students who live on island went home to help their families.

Elder Thomson inspecting a keyboard

   

Lots of debris fell when the roof was blown off

The dorm girls raked the campus

Elder Heiner and student Livingston

The dorm boys are STRONG

Elder Heiner was put in charge of organizing cleanup of the FM building where the roof had blown away.

There was much damage to computers, muscial instruments, and structure.

Senior couples and dorm boys and girls pitched in together for a fun morning working together in the FM building.

Cyclone Gita

Some pictures from the local news. We have been out all over the island helping. I am just posting these pictures for now.

Sopu

Popua

Popua

Makeshift shelter for mother Anne Taufa and her children Kasimea and Kamipeli at Houma, Tongatapu.19 February 2018.

Category 5 Cyclone Gita

Cyclone Gita blew in about 7 PM with strong winds. It came on quickly. We went across the street to our Family Home Evening. An hour later we walked home with severe winds, struggling against the wind and sloshing through puddles. Several of the senior couples (about half of them) decided to spend the night at the Service Center, thinking it would be safer than in our little apartments. We chose to sleep in our bed. Well, try to sleep.  

We pushed all the furniture away from the walls and got everything off the floor. There was no where to sit now, so off to bed we went. The winds became more and more fierce. We could hear all sorts of banging and what sounded like roofs being torn off (roofs are corrugated steel). About midnight, we peeked out the window, and my oh my the coconut tree fronds were flying through the sky! The yard was already full of tree debris. Water was on the floor - the rain was seeping through the louvered windows. I laid down as many towels as I could find. In the morning, we rung out the towels and filled 2 BIG buckets with the water.

In the morning, I opened the front door. WOW. I was amazed. The tree in front of our house had lost over half its branches. Our front lawn was deep with these branches. Coconut tree fronds covered the campus lawn.  Coconut trees were laying on several roofs as well. Monte and a young man he was working with cut these down with chain saw.

Busby's house, 3 away from us

Our front lawn

We went for a walk around campus. One house had the entire roof blown off. The occupants fled to the library at Liahona High School for safety. The roof also was torn off the computer lab; thus the computers will be ruined as they were rained on heavily. Roof was blown off FM building and other areas as well.

Liahona High School Computer Lab Building

We had no water, but we did have electricity because of the generator on campus. I now began the task of cleaning our house and lawn. Monte was at the emergency container making sure the chain saws worked. We had a meeting with the Stake Presidents and Elder Tukuafu (area 70) to discuss the situation. After the meeting, most of the Stake Presidents met us at the emergency container where we dispensed mostly chain saws with gas and oil, and tarps. All our chain saws are in action, and nearly 300 tarps handed out to be used to cover roofs, etc.

Driving down a main road near Kahoua

Brother Faka'osilea Kaufusi, our country welfare manager, who we work closely with, did not have enough gas to get home to Navutoka (east side of Tongatapu). He asked if we would drive him home. It is about an hour each way. We saw much destruction. The roads were barely open, after trees had been cut.

Power lines are down all over the island. Power poles have either snapped or blown over. The electricity was shut off ahead of the cyclone so no fires started from downed lines. It will be weeks before power is restored everywhere.

Many homes were damaged, mostly roofs blown
off.

                                                                             
           

On one home, the roof was intact, but the rest of the house collapsed so what remained was only the roof on the ground!

I hope that family was staying at a shelter and not in this home during the night.




We also stopped at our office in Maufunga. The skylight had been broken, and there was water everywhere. The window behind my desk had been broken, and water got onto my laptop computer. We brought it home to see if we could get it dry and hopefully still run. We also brought home files that had been on the desk that were wet.

Tidbits from the internet:

The storm hit the island with destructive sustained winds of around 243 kilometers per hour (151 miles per hour), damaging about 40 percent of the buildings in the capital.

Officials described Cyclone Gita as the most powerful storm to ever hit Tongatapu after it passed through shortly after midnight.

"They have been through cyclones before, but this is the biggest cyclone this island has had for at least 60 odd years," quote from NEMO, National Emergency Management Office.

School Renovations

We have been approached to help with this government primary school (GPS) to help renovate one of their buildings. There are many schools in poor condition

This GPS has had a large increase in number of students this year. Thus they have had to make additional classrooms.

A building in the village was torn down and the materials taken to the school grounds where this building was erected.

Two classes meet in this building now. The village has run out of funds. They are asking assistance to renovate the last part of the building for a classroom. The villagers will provide the labor.

There is so much work that needs to be done to make this into a viable classroom. We are assessing the costs of starting all over, perhaps with concrete blocks to match the rest of the school.

Another school we visited also had a large increase in students this year. One of their classes meets outside. When it rains, the students are either crowded into another class or meet under the overhang where they are protected from the rain somewhat.

In asking the country manager about looking for schools that we could help, he said they all need help. Oh how I wish we could help them all.

Furniture for Schools - Havelu GPS

When New Zealand schools get new school furniture, the old is sent to the Pacific Islands for distribution to schools. In Tonga, the government builds the schools, but does not maintain them. They pay the teachers, but do not supply desks, chairs, chalkboards, whiteboards, books, etc. These items are all through donation, mostly from foreign countries.



This week, Havelu GPS (government primary school) received desks and chairs. These students were excited to have real desks and chairs. The older boys unloaded the items and put them in the classrooms.

Children wear uniforms to school. Each school has its own colors.

These girls were all smiles, and practiced their English on us palangis (white people).







These younger boys were still at their "desks" and benches. They also were more than happy to have their pictures taken.


Note their bare feet. Many children do not wear shoes at all, school being no exception.

They wear uniforms every day but Friday, which is laundry day so they can have clean uniform come Monday.


When we pulled up with the truck and drove around to the back of the school where the classrooms receiving the desks and chairs were located, we could hear yelling and hollering. The air was abuzz with the students' excitement.

Kesaia Huni Memorial

Penga, Villiami, Nonia, Loeni, Latu Huni

The Hunis lost a daughter, Kesaia, last year to diabetes. They had a memorial at the one-year mark. They had a headstone for the grave. Some family could not make it last year were able to come for this time. We were honored to be asked to attend.

After the gravesite ceremony, a feast and dancing took place at the community hall.