“Another day of doing relief in Tam Quang commune, Nui Thanh district, Quang Nam province where the Ketsana typhoon directly hit on the 28^th of Sept, I had an opportunity to witness the enormous losses of the  poor people in the coastal village again.

 If you just hear about this, you will never imagine how the typhoon was, how high the tidal wave was, how strong the wind was, but I saw devastated situation of this village of my own eyes after one day of struggling with wind and flood. I was told that the tidal wave was up to between 3 meters and 5 meters. How poor the people here are! I can’t express my feeling when I first put my first step in this area. After a talk with the local authority, I found that 18 houses were entirely collapsed, the roof of 2600 houses was torn away and the children lost all their school things. I am praying God to bless those suffering from losses resulted in this typhoon overcome this difficult time.

 I interviewed a man whose only remaining part of his home is the  floor. After  many hours of struggling with gusts of wind and high tidal waves. He looked down and said in hopelessness:

 “The typhoon and tidal waves came so fast, so we lost everything in house and the house which is the valuable property of my family, but we are lucky to be alive now. I and my wife tried to save money in many years to build this house, but now it was collapsed completely. We have nothing now. We have to live in our neighbors’ house. I am a fisherman whose earnings is unstable and just enough to cover daily bread and some living expenses of my family with 8 people including 6 children. I moved my wife and my children to other place to avoid the typhoon, but I stayed to keep the house but I was powerless in front of the typhoon with horrible devastation that I have never seen before.”   

        It is very difficult to predict the power of the flood which took away life of a couple in Tam Anh Bac commune, Nui Thanh district, Quang Nam province. This family has a lake to raise shrimps near the sea. While they were staying in their shack next to the lake to move a machine home, the flood waters suddenly reached the high level of the shack and swept them away when they were on the way home. They left 4 children whose lives depend on their parents’ support. The first one gets mental deficiency, the other one is with a paralyzed arm. Looking at the eyes of these 4 children, it seems that they are too young to be able to feel the serious pain of losing parents.” 

  Our  team is out in the field again helping the needy. Getting food and clean water to those without. I know this is only the beginning but GIBTK will do all we can to help the families get up on their feet and rebuild again.

Thank you!!!!