The Newsroom Blog

Learning a Lesson the Hard Way

Storing a few items to sustain life is critical during times of natural disasters. First responders and critical services are seldom available during the first 72 hour after a disaster. Individuals who can provide basic needs have a much greater chance to survive. The following real live accounts illustrate the need for advanced preparation.

floods in Provident2
 
It was Saturday, September 26, 2009 when Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines.  Because of the heavy rain, our family was in the house watching a movie. After an hour of constant downpour, our daughter opened the window and noticed the side street full of water. I was impressed to tell my wife that we need to pack up and leave the house. However, before we finished gathering our things, the flood waters entered the house. We left immediately with what we had in hand, locked the door and headed for what we thought was a safe place to wait until the storm ended.
 
We walked down the street in knee deep water and were told by neighbors that we were trapped in the subdivision since all the exit streets were flooded and inaccessible. The only place to go was Curayao, a large hill nearby. There we found shelter in a house with other families who were lucky enough to get out before their homes were engulfed. Within minutes most of the homes in the subdivision were flooded and those who did not leave in time were stuck on their roofs.
 
We had brought a few t-shirts and dresses, a blanket, some valuable documents, a can of biscuits and a bottled soft drink. We felt lucky to have the biscuits as it helped satisfy our hunger until the next day. We had very little money with us, but it was insignificant since there was no food to purchase.  We were unable to prepare for such an emergency so we had to rely on what we had at the time, which wasn’t much.  The owner of the house where we stayed was generous to provide us with some food but there was not enough for the many families that found shelter there. We somehow managed to survive the worst experience of my life.
 
Three days after the typhoon, we visited our home to find that all our possessions were destroyed or gone. It was especially disheartening to have lost things that had special meaning to us, my wife’s book of remembrance and the journal of her deceased mother. Had we placed these documents in a sealed plastic bag they may not have been ruined.  Had we prepared food and essential items ready to grab in an instance we would not have had the stress and discomforts we experienced. Lessons are sometimes learned the hard way and now we are better prepared for what could happen to us.
 
-Ronaldo Tupas
 
Another experience reveals a different outcome.
 
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My desire to obey our church leaders inspired me to prepare our family’s 72-hour emergency kit. It was very challenging because I needed four kits and I didn’t know where to begin. I started by collecting my children’s old backpacks and stuffing them with essential items. With a limited budget I collected some clothes, crackers and candies. After another payday, I purchased three small canned food items for each kit. Next payday, I acquired toiletries and other small items as the budget would allow. I continued this process so as not to burden our family’s limited budget.
 
When I had almost completed the kits, I noticed some things came up missing from one. My son confessed that he had taken some things from his kit. “It was an emergency Mom, I was hungry!” I decided to buy small padlocks to ensure the kits would remain complete and available when we might need them. My children had to learn self control. “And the rains came down and the floods came up,” as included in a song from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints children’s songbook, is exactly what happened during the 2009 Ondoy floods. The water in our home rose almost three feet high in less than 10 minutes. With little time to prepare, we grabbed our 72-hour kits, as much food storage as we could carry, the lunch we were about to eat and evacuated to our former church leader’s home on higher ground at the end of our road.
 
By the time we arrived we felt like we had crossed “The Red Sea”. The family was just preparing to eat lunch as we arrived, coincidently the same lunch we had prepared and brought with us. Our clothes were wet from the journey, so we changed but found some items in our kits were wet since the packs were made of cloth. We shared our canned goods but the water had caused the labels to peel off.  Unable to identify the contents, we opened all of them. We prepared menus for meat loaf, corned beef and pineapple chunks in tomato sauce, and a tuna dish.
We learned from this experience the need to improve our 72-hour kits. After receiving my next  pay check, I purchased customized waterproof backpacks. I put our clothes in sealed plastic bags, and bought crackers covered with foil. For our food storage, I now buy canned goods with plastic labels and ones that do not require a can opener. I also include a variety of goodies we enjoy eating.
 
“And the rains came down “again during the 2012 Habagat flood. This time we were better prepared to make another “exodus”. Before the waters came inside our house, we had already evacuated to the Tandang Sora Chapel (meetinghouse)with our 72-hour kits and other items we could carry. It felt good to be prepared and we were happy to share with others who were grateful for our contribution. Although some of the canned goods had expired, our family was happy to have what we needed to sustain us during this time. I recognized I had learned a great lesson: the Lord will sustain us as we obey his commandments, follow our church leaders, and prepare needful things. 
 
-Eva Marie S. Villadares-Abdon
 

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