President Lamisi Ma’u, of the Eua Tonga Stake, who was so very helpful to us. His is an inspirational story – that I’ll share one day, on the blog.
People are evacuating to the stake center (who live in low lying areas). We are “relatively” safe at Liahona and we are only 200 feet from the temple which is the highest point on the island.
Without question, the sturdiest buildings in Tonga are the church buildings – 16 stakes on Tongatapu, 3 Stakes on Vava’u, and 1 stake on Eua.
The people we really feel sorry for are the Tongans who live in shacks by the beach. With a storm surge, they are going to lose their homes. We’ve taped our windows (for flying debris) and moved our furniture to the middle of the room. We don’t have much in the way of personal effects, but what is important is in our backpacks. We still have electricity so we are cooking everything in our freezer.
On Eua, there are just two stores, and they are in a sorry-state of affairs. There are a few vegetable/fruit stands, but most of the people live off what they personally grow, or catch in the sea.
Water won’t be a problem because we have a cistern behind the house that catches rain water (and we have a filter in the house – and the water is gravity fed.No-one knows what to expect because Tonga has never been hit by a category 5 cyclone. Flying coconuts and palm fronds will be a big hazard. Our house made of brick, and we take comfort in the tale of the three little pigs. We feel fortunate to have made it out of Eua (outer island) this morning on the last flight before the airport shut down. Our car is still in Eua (no ferry) but we left it with the Stake President. He will send it when he can – but we can walk wherever we need to go, in the meantime.
This is the fale we stayed in when we were on Eua. It’s only a hundred meters from the sea, and not very high above sea level.
All the buildings at Liahona have louvered windows, so we have taped them shut – but they will still leak with the driving rain. Hopefully, they won’t shatter if something hard hits them. We are current on our tithing and we go to the temple every week, we attend Sacrament meeting, and say our prayers. But the Lord helps those who help themselves, so we’re trying to figure out if we’ve forgotten anything. We have a Senior Missionary meeting in an hour or so, to go over procedures. It will probably be a long night.
The view from our fale. It was beautiful over the weekend (until everything came unglued Sunday afternoon, when we first heard about the cyclone).
We secured things at the dental clinic, and put things that can’t easily be replaced up high and away from the windows. We were traveling from Eua today, but our missionary and volunteer were in the clinic until 3:30 p.m. seeing patients. I have no answer to why patients would come to the cliic today. Stores, schools, and offices are closed today, and the streets are quiet. We bought what we need on the way home from the airport, and are relatively well-provisioned. We can get by on fruit from the bush, and rain water. There are always pigs, dogs, and chickens to eat. But this is a heavily populated island and I worry that the infrastructure will be heavily damaged.
On Sunday, after church, we went for a drive and found these beautiful cliffs. It was only after we returned to our fale that we first heard from Kathryn about the cyclone.
We are not as bad off as some South Pacific islands who are one container ship away from starvation, but we do get most of our supplies from abroad. I have two 4 x 4 x 4 crates coming on a ship that is supposed to be here in 10 days. I hope it didn’t sink somewhere around Samoa on its way here. Time will tell.
On Sunday evening, while we were waiting to see if we could get on the Monday morning flight, the sunset hinted at the storm that was brewing.
Missionaries have been evacuated from outer islands – the same places we’ve visited in the past months, and that were so idyllic just a few weeks ago. There are 150 missionaries in Tonga – all are accounted for. All the Senior Missionaries are here at Liahona. They call us the “elderly missionaries” and take good care of us. The Mission Home (where the President lives) is just across the street, so he has a handle on the situation. He does tend to say “Pray about it,” when he is asked about specific emergency procedures, but he has a good heart.
President Ma’u, his wife, and 3 of their 5 children saw us off at the airport on Eua. It was President Ma’u who offered to take me to Tonga in his fishing boat. (When he saw how rough the sea was on Monday morning, he called it off.) Two of his kids go to Liahona, and I am going to see them in the clinic (when it re-opens).
Coming in for a landing on Tonga. It was a good feeling to be back on our home turf, although I wonder what this evening will bring. (That’s the grass we landed on – NOT the concrete runway BEYOND the grass.)
I’ll post to the blog as long as we have internet.
Ofa lahi atu
Phil and Jan's Adventure in Tonga 