Hurricane Gustav...Day 2

The wind and rain continued thru the night and into the morning today. Pastor Placide has continued to call us telling us of certain people we know that are in desperate need of help. However, with the storm still here it is difficult to leave. The four wheeler has been are life saver and the only way to travel outside our home. With it’s size and strength we have been able to buy more supplies for the orphanage and take Mdm Jean and Mdm Emiliene to their front doors. At this moment I don’t remember who donated that to us, but I can’t express our thanks enough. I know some of you are wondering how we are. We are fine. The house received a little damage; PVC pipe broken on the roof, missing metal on our porch roof, and 25 house crazy kids. We are running the house on the small gasoline generator only as we have not received power in 2 days. Unfortunately we only have 1 small gallon. So we have to drive to Texeco at least once a day to fill it up. My first thought is that you pray for it to stop raining. Danny and the three boys that went to Wahoo Bay are home. They ended up parking the car at the hotel and walking/swimming until I was able to pick them up on the 4 wheeler. Danny says downtown is bad. There is flooding everywhere with trucks under water. At some point he said the water was up to his neck.
I took Mdm Emiliene home with 2 of her girls. She insisted that she was walking home because she had a girl that stayed home and she was worried about her. With the four wheeler I was able to take small walking paths and go thru 3-4 foot deep water with no problems. I was able to go to about 30 feet from her house. It was heartbreaking. Her roof was torn off and carried about 30 feet from the house. Her clothes, house stuff, mattress, and kitchen are drenched and/or destroyed. There are several things we will have to replace as the rain destroyed it. Mdm Emiliene insisted on staying at her home, she was afraid of what little she had left would be stolen. So I took the three girls back to the house and told her I would return with some tarps. About 2 hours later I returned with Omega, Evens, and Maiz (Mdm Emiliene’s daughter). We brought 2 tarps, change of clothes, blanket, food, and water for the night. Mdm Emiliene was overwhelmed and in shock. She just kept saying how everything is gone. Night was approaching quickly and we forgot to bring a flashlight. So I had us put everything in the middle of the house and throw the tarps over it, holding it down with rocks and cement blocks. I hugged Mdm Emiliene and told her that we would help her out and she would have a stronger and better home. That God was with her and to not be afraid. She started crying, nodding, and thanked us for coming. It was dark and still raining. Omega, Evens, Maiz, and I were drenched and freezing as I drove slowly back. It is still raining today and we are praying that it stops.
Our Internet comes and goes. We have called our missionary friends and they are having hard times. Nixon and Sandra had to evacuate the old people’s village. The flooding and mudslides were that bad. Michelle and Larry have had extreme flooding again too. Tina is doing better as she is not as close to the mountain. Several Haitian friends also have flooded out homes or lost their homes. Above all pray that it stops raining.