Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Pray for our city

Please continue to pray for our area. Just days after a category 4 Typhoon caused significant damage around our island, torrential rains from another tropical depression have produced severe flooding. This past Monday, strong rains produced rapid and deadly flooding around Antipolo (the city where our clinic and houses are located). Six people drowned in these floods and the already damaged houses took another beating from the flood water. One of the national volunteers in our clinic had neck high flooding in her home. This dear friend is not a wealthy Filipino. Most families here live day to day and paycheck to paycheck, so there is not much money to replace the things that were lost.

After Monday night's heavy downpour and flooding, things look worse than they did over the weekend. Many trees, concrete power poles, signs, roofs, sheet metal, and other debris litter the roads and ground as well as thick layers of mud. Often the air is filled with smoke as people try to burn the leaves, sticks and debris swept from homes, yards, and roads. Many of our friends and fellow missionaries are still with out power, water, and phone. Some of them had their utilities restored, only to lose them again on Monday night.

Our family is doing well. We currently have power but no water service. The clinic remains without power or water. We continue to see patients but some services are limited without power. (Reading a x-ray by holding it up to the sun-lit window is not the ideal method taught to physicians). Many of our lab tests are also limited by lack of power.

Below are a few pictures we took on our street today. These pictures do not show too much destruction, but they give you an idea of what things look like here.

Mud and downed power lines in front of the clinic

Downed Cement power pole and trees

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About Us

Allan & Ginger Gilmer, Philippine Mission P.O. Box 2035 Antipolo, Rizal 1870 Philippines