October Floods

We have had some crazy rain this week. I was sure we were in the middle of a hurricane. This storm has actually caused more flooding and damage than former hurricanes! The flooding caused all the rivers we know of to overflow their banks, and many ran right through the middle of villages. So many homes have been flooded and filled with mud. Crops like banana trees have been flattened by the rushing water and we are all isolated from the city and from one another by the overflowing rivers. Two of the main bridges between us and the city are uncrossable and people are starting to go across in little canoes. Kinda dangerous with the fast-moving water! We have been out of power all week and they are working frantically to get the power lines back up. We had no water for a few days, so we had to gather water in buckets outside but now our system is working again. Thankfully, they had just filled the diesel tanks for the hospital generator so we were able to move freezers and fridges into the hospital areas to keep our food from spoiling.

We have been very blessed with our dedicated employees who have hiked through mud and forged rivers to get to work. Then we are challenged with treating the few patients who can actually make it here and making sure it is safe for them to go back home.

We still do not know what devastation has occured in the mountains. Here on the coast, only a few homes have been completely washed away. But with the mudslides we are having here, we can only imagine how many homes have slid down the muddy mountains, leaving their inhabitants homeless, wet and cold. We pray for their safety and our wisdom to help them when we can.