Hi all! Thanks for praying, we woke up to clear and sunny skies today (Tuesday)! What a blessing, as the hot sun did a lot to dry out and firm up the ground. Here’s just a quick summary of our weekend and the heavy rains…forgive me for not being very organized, my thoughts are all in a jumble today as we sort out from under the mess!
From Sunday afternoon to Monday morning, we received about 7.5 inches of rain. It was like a week’s worth of rain fast-forwarded into about 18 hours. During the night and early a.m. hours, we could hear roars that almost sounded like planes going overhead. As the daylight came we realized we were hearing landslides all around us as pieces of land and trees would give way. The roars would start quietly and get louder and louder, as we would look to see what was falling next. The land across our little notch has five or six landslides, many of which we watched fall. Looking toward Lita northwest up the valley Kenny counted over 30 landslides, some of which are covering the road to Lita. The main trail is washed out or mud-slid in several places just close to the Outpost here, and our water-hose was knocked out and one section lost. We made the kids all stay home and were glad when we later saw that right next to our clothes-washing place had landslid (is that a word?) down the mountain, just a stone’s throw from our houses. The back side of our mountain, southwest of us, has a large section gone. Many of the Awa are evacuating to safer places, including our closest neighbors Porfidio and Milton. In Lita the electric is out, houses have fallen over the bank, the road to Ibarra is closed with landslides and missing sections of road. It seems the skies just let loose over this whole area! Most of the Awa said they’d never seen anything like it. Many of them, like Miguel, Milton, and Porfidio, will have to move their houses and replant most of their crops.
Milton and his family arrived at our house about 9 a.m. on Monday, soaked and shivering with cold. They had heard a roar near their house about 5 a.m., and when he shone his flashlight he saw that the mountainside near their house had just disappeared. The kids were scared and crying, but Milton said he prayed and asked God to take care of them, and then told his family they would wait til daybreak. As the light broke he realized that their house had landslides on three sides of it and he realized it was urgent to get his family to a safer place. After packing up their most precious belongings, his guitar, and dry clothes, they set out for Milton’s dad’s house around the west side of our mountain. They found that side blocked with another large mudslide, so ended up coming up here to our house. We were glad to offer them shelter and lunch. Virgilio, Paulino and two of his sisters, along with their families, all were here about noon, all heading to their houses. (Paulino’s family had all been gathered at his dad’s because they had killed a cow.) Since the main trail was washed away, they all had to climb the ridge across from us to get back on the trail on the other side. Paulino was worried about his house and his five kids he’d left behind in Palmira, wondering what he’d find when he got home. He said if all was well he’d back tomorrow to help us fix our water-line. Milton and Porfidio have now taken their families back down to Milton’s dad’s house to stay for the next few days.
Because of the electric outage in Lita, we aren’t sure how long the back-up power on the cell phone tower will last. We aren’t sure if the tower just has a back-up battery or a generator, so don’t know how long our communications will hold out. (We do have a radio.) But we are thankful….we are here, safe and sound, and our houses and mountain-top are still standing! (Thank you, Paulino, for picking us out a sturdy house-site!) The Shaubs had just brought up 2 months of supplies on Saturday. We are running low on propane for our stoves, but we had just got our wood-stove up and running. None of our Awa neighbors or friends have lost their houses or were hurt. Kevin and Andy worked most of today and have our water running again, at least a short-term fix. Our car is definitely not going anywhere, but it’s parked in a safe location that didn’t landslide. And the list goes on! Thanks for praying!
Kenny took some pictures this morning…they are posted at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019194&id=1205725599&l=5a95e
Kevin & Kathy Bruce
PS – Wednesday update: Paulino came back down. His family in Palmira was fine, though they got a bit scared too. Today we worked on the trail across from our house, and got it horse navagable. The government hopes to get the main road from Ibarra to Lita opened by Sunday, but who knows when we will get tractors for our road from Lita to RV. The rivers where so muddy that a lot of the fish were dieing and many Awa took adavantage to scoop them up. Paulino told of some of the Awa getting 25 pounds or more of fish! He brought some down for us which we cooked up for lunch today!
