Philippines Earthquake Update

Home Collapses Into River

The earthquake in the Philippines that you are hearing about in the news was centered on the Island where Montana on a Mission and another Montana based non-profit called IDEA work.

Dennis Drake grew up in Billings, Montana and founded the Deaf and Blind School in the Philippines. I have included some of his assessment of how the earthquake has damaged the schools and properties used by the Deaf and Blind.

Our work has been affected, however because communication lines have been cut off due to the destruction caused by the earthquake. Denny Freed, one of our Montana on A Mission Leaders, is heading out to the Philippines in a week to assess damage and begin planning. We are scheduled to go the the Philippines in January and quite likely this will change the  trajectory of that trip.

For more information on what’s happening you can continue reading what Dennis Drake wrote about the Deaf and Blind Schools. Those of you who have been to the Philippines will remember several of the places mentioned that have been badly damaged or destroyed.

Remains of Loboc Church

The initial 7.2 shake was absolutely intense making it almost impossible to even stand up. Since that initial hit we have had over 1000 aftershock although most have been mild. Three were over 5.0. Seemingly minor damage around town turned into major damage with the frequent aftershocks.

Tagbilaran was not as bad hit as other parts of the island but both malls are now closed because of major structural damage. The custom of going to the supermarket to get groceries is not a thing of the past. The new hospital I was in to visit a friend when the quake hit has now been closed as the top two floors are so badly damaged and a huge exterior wall collapsed. Many homes around town have been left unlivable. Many of our staff lost their homes. Of course you may have seen the pictures of the total collapse of the Loboc Church as well as the Baclayon Church.

The actual epicenter of the quake was in Sagbayan where we have one of our deaf schools with a dormitory and newly completed classroom building.

We deployed assessment teams this morning to learn what they could about the sites we work in. The first problem has been how to get the teams to where they need to be because so many bridges are collapsed or badly damaged. They got to our site in the town of Sagbayan to find the town almost totally wiped out. Our dormitory has been devastated and our brand new classroom building that we have worked about a year on is damaged badly but may be repairable. It was scheduled for inauguration in about 30 days.

There isn’t a structure in the whole town of Sagbayan that wasn’t totally destroyed or badly damaged. Everyone are living in tents. There are certainly bodies buried in the rubble. So sad. The death toll is on the whole island is now headed toward 200 but for sure it will climb. None of our students are injured, thank the Lord. We set about today in finding ways to send the kids home which amounted to renting motorcycles and drivers to load the kids on so they could navigate the damaged roads. Pretty much all forms of communication are cut off because there isn’t even power to recharge cell phones.

Our high school is in pretty good shape with only the large concrete water tower having a large crack in it. This affects our ability to provide water to the campus.

Talibon school seems to have fared the best. Very few problems either at the school or in the town. More like, business as usual.

Our Jagna facility has reported only minor cracks in the walls and broken windows. Even our IDEA Pension house in Jagna as reported only minor damage. We can not go to Jagna to confirm this because of landslides and bridges out. There are no reports of student injuries but again, it is difficult to confirm this information.

Our Loon school has needed to evacuate the dormitory as well. All the ceilings collapsed and we are unsure about the structural condition. There is no power in the town and no food in the market. Loon is cut off will all road impassable. We tried to reach it today but couldn’t make it. We will try again tomorrow. Our dormitory has a deep-well and the mayor is providing a generator but our dorm parents don’t know how to hook it up. We will try and send our guy to do at least this so not only our deaf but the hundreds of people camping in the school oval will have water.

We are preliminarily estimating our repairs could run $150,000 to $200,000. It will take years to repair just the damage to the roads and bridges let alone all the stores and homes.

IDEA will be bringing in as many out of school deaf men who are unemployed or under employed and training them in construction to join our experienced construction teams. I would like to have five crews in the field.

I just pray that the news doesn’t get worse. Thank you for thinking of us and your prayers. I will keep you informed.

Best regards,

Dennis

You can read more about IDEA’s response to the earthquake on the IDEA website.

We hope to update you more soon.