by Stephen & Lynn Spore — BBFI Missionaries to Vanuatu
For five days we were warned a cyclone named Pam was coming. Two days before it hit, it was upgraded from a Category 3 storm to a Category 4, and then to Category 5 and was called Super Tropical Cyclone Pam. We kept the web page tracking cyclone Pam up and viewed it hourly. It was very clear that it truly was a huge cyclone. It was moving very slowly (around 6 mph) which magnified its intensity by a hundred fold.
We put up wooden shutters on the church and school buildings and our home. Anything that might blow away was taken inside. Then came the waiting. Friday, the wait was over as the wind began to gust. By 5:00 pm the wind was beyond gale force and by 9:00 pm power was off, phones were off, and we were in the midst of the storm.
We certainly could identify with Paul’s statement of being in the deep and praying for day. During the night, we could hear trees crashing and all sorts of things hitting the roof and shutters of our home. Some things hit so hard the house shook. We watched as water came in through our eight-inch solid concrete walls. It was a very long night!
We prayed our Lord would protect us, our people, and the five families sheltering in Grace Bible Baptist Church, and that no trees would come down on the church, school, or our neighbors houses. Saturday morning we waited anxiously for the wind to die down enough for us to safely drive to church and see how everyone had fared. We knew that 15 hours of cyclonic winds with gusts of over 217 mph would leave mass destruction.
While waiting on the wind to die down, we mopped our flooded living room. Our driveway was covered with tree limbs and debris and there was almost nothing still standing in our once-lush tropical yard. When we were finally able to get in the truck and head out, we saw a landscape that looked like a war zone. Less than a fifth of the trees were still standing, none of them whole. Many of our neighbors’ roofs were gone or partially gone. Smaller houses were demolished completely.
As we drove, we wove our way through downed trees and tree limbs, sheet metal, fencing, power lines, and other debris. We were astonished at the damage. Roads were flooded with water head-high in some areas. The five-minute drive to the church took an hour.
Schools, churches, homes, and shops were all badly damaged or gone completely. There are no words to describe the heart-pounding anguish we felt as we drove, praying, “Lord, let our people be alright.”
Driving in nearly two feet of water, we were over a mile away from the church when we realized we could see the church buildings still standing. As we turned onto the church road, we could see the verandas on both buildings were gone and we could see that the long-line steel roof had been lifted. Trees were down and there was other damage and flooding around the buildings.
The fence around our church and school sits on a short wall that is three concrete blocks high and, in most places, the water was level with the top of the blocks. Our neighbor had parked his “new” truck on the veranda hoping to avoid damage from flying debris. The veranda roof was completely gone but the truck didn’t have a scratch on it. Inside, our five families were all unharmed and smiling as we came through the door. God had answered our prayer!
As with any disaster, nearly everyone has stories of needs and of blessings. I want to share a few of those with you as you pray for Vanuatu and its people. During the cyclone, pieces of the ceiling were breaking free and falling throughout the church building, the bond beam was cracking, and the verandas were in the process of being ripped free. As you can imagine, fear gripped the people inside, but one of our women sat still and challenged the others by pointing out that, “This is God’s house and God is big enough to take care of His house and His people in His house!” She challenged them to have faith and trust in God’s hand even in the midst of the biggest cyclone ever recorded here.
The wind gusts were so strong they folded our long-line steel roofing like a fan. The crumpled roofing broke the ring beam in the auditorium, but remained attached. Had it blown off, the entire contents of the church would have been lost.
Tropical Cyclone Pam destroyed buildings and snatched giant trees out of the ground. It threw yachts, fishing boats, and ferries into the wharves and shoreline. It even blew a small puppy approximately 3 to 4 weeks old into the church yard. (We named her TC Pam and she is doing fine after her flying ordeal.)
The first day after the storm moved out, most people were in a state of shock and they began to try to make sure neighbors had survived. Next came trying to dry everything out and salvage what they could of food, clothing, and bedding.
Thursday and Friday after the storm, we had all-church-and-school-family workdays. It was amazing how much work 50 people per day accomplished. The better the grounds began to look, the harder they worked wanting the “face of the church grounds to be smiling again.” It certainly looks better and now we are helping many who lost homes or roofs. We also are buying lots of rice and providing water, bedding, and clothes for those without.
This is the first time we’ve seen such total destruction firsthand. Pray God will use us and our church people to bring encouragement and the love of Christ to people in the capital. We trust this will further the Gospel. Pray we have wisdom in helping those around us with such desperate needs.