Greetings,
I am sending a quick e mail update from Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. The past two days ou YWAM team plus church friends from the U.S. and local Christians here have distributed relief supplies in three camps to tsunami victims. In one camp thirty families live, all Telegu speaking people who previously lived in a fishing village in Port Blair. They had to leave their homes and come to this cramped one room camp shortly after Dec. 26.
Yesterday we drove to two more camps, out in the countryside, about 25 kilometers west and north of Port Blair. Those two camps are like boy scout camps, with neat rows of canvas tents. In the first camp there are 51 families, all of whom have been permanently driven out of their homes by the shift of land here on Dec. 26 during the massive earthquake. The second camp, with 30 families, is a similar story,
In that second camp among many items distributed (kerosene stoves, undergarments, bathing and laundry soap, toothpaste, tea, milk, and sugar) were several nice soccer balls. It was a joy to see the excited kids and to hear them saying to their moms, " A ball mommy!" As we drove away, I saw one young girl bouncing the ball, and two other toddlers playing catch.
Tonight we go by boat to Hut Bay, on another island about ten hours to the south. That place was devastated by the tsunami wave. I will report on that in a couple of days. I would appreciate your prayers as about ten to twelve of us travel down by sea. It is a ten hour boat ride. I have heard that we will have to rough it in Hut Bay.
On Sunday afternoon, we are going to see a place where we hope to engage in a long term tsunami rebuilding project. Pray that the Lord will clearly guide us if that is the place we're to work here on a long term basis. Thank you so much to those of you who have contributed. We have 10 YWAM workers in the Andaman and Nicobar islands right now, with another 10 due to arrive on March 7. Most of those are here for one to two months. Pray for others to join our team leaders here... Rajan and Jolly.
I'll close here for now,... much is happening. Blessings to you all.
Mike Bordon
Greetings from Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.
I am here with a team of 14 to do relief work in these islands that were hit by the earthquake and tsunami on Dec. 26. I have not been able to travel to outer islands, and am in the city of Port Blair. We have gone out to some of the outlying regions on this island, that is home to most of the population of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
On this island, the bulk of the damage was due to the earthquake, rather than the tsunami. Still, tsunami damage is visible. Even in a sheltered harbor, I saw two large ships foundered in the marine dockyard. Boats and ships can be seen in some places along the shore line, beached by the tsunami. Sea walls were knocked down, and on one stretch of road a car and a van were pushed out of the way by the big waves.
There is much fear here. The aftershocks continue. There have been two since I got here three days ago. At night, many residents of this island are sleeping outside under temporary tarpaulin shelters. There is too much anxiety to sleep indoors. Rumors are flying around, such as the rumor that between the 15th and 18th there is going to be another earthquake. We are trying to spread the message that there is very, very low chance of another earthquake. the earths pent up energy has been discharged! We are travelling with a consultant who was an advisor to the Papua New Guinea government on earthquakes and tsunamis. He is trying to get a tract publicized to that effect, based on scientific fact. We are hoping such news will help to comfort and allay fears.
Our team is concentrating right now on relief to the camps here in Port Blair. We are distributing hygiene items such as soaps, toothpaste and brushes, combs, hair oil, as well as women's sanitary products, bedsheets, mosquito nets, and sleeping mats. Today some of the Pune DTS students are delivering buckets as well as green vegetables to the tsunami victims. I want to commend the work being done by our Pune DTS team and by the North India Disaster Relief team.
In the 12 or so camps around Port Blair, the people are from Car Nicobar island, Little Andaman, and other areas like Campbell Bay. These people were hardest hit by the tsunami. They were flown into Port Blair in an evacuation operation that continues. The Nicobaris particularly, who are mostly Christians of the Church of North India, have lost everything. I saw one Nicobari family in a camp who had all their belongings on a mat behind them. their house destroyed, their island left behind, refugees in a strange land.
Many are being flown out of the Andamans. I saw an Indian Air Force plane loading up a long queue of people, leaving the islands. Some want to go, fearing to live here, others not really wanting to go, but having no place left here.
The difficulty here with the affected people is that there is no place for some of them to go back to. For some, they simply need to rebuild their house, but for others, the land on which they lived is now covered by the sea. I saw areas in Wandoor, south of Port Blair where rice paddy fields are now covered by sea. It is estimated that the whole plate on which these islands sit sunk by one meter in the earthquake. I met people who have not been able to go back to their houses since Dec. 26. At night they sleep up in temporary tents on the hillside, as the high tide floods into their houses. Basically these people need to come to the realization that they have to move further inland, as a new shoreline has been established in some areas.
At the Marine Dockyard in Port Blair, they told us that at night, at high tide, the pier is now covered with water. At a fishing village, the locals showed us where a beach had existed before the earthquake, but it is gone now.
As I said, the Nicobaris took the brunt of the tsunami waves, before the monster waves got to the Andaman chain. Many Nicobaris have been killed and displaced. Many are here in camps. Last night we distributed 100 hygiene kits to survivors in one camp here. This morning we are taking out 150 more. There are a lot of needs. I heard of one Nicobari pastor, who lost his three children in the tsunami. After seeing them swept away, he jumped into the water and helped many people swim to high ground. Finally he got his arm caught between two trees and it was broken. He and his wife have survived and are here in Port Blair. A pastor told me of people climbing trees to escape the water, only to find poisonous snakes up in the tree tops that were trying to get out of the water. Most of those worst hit were evacuated here. In addition to about 12 camps in Port Blair, I saw six more camps as we drove down toward Wandoor. There is definitely scope for more expenditure on relief here, but also to begin looking for avenues to help in long term rebuilding.
We are attempting to get one of our water purification filters that works off of a car battery sent down to Car Nicobar island, where there is much devastation.
For foreigners, we cannot go to the Nicobar islands, and are somewhat restricted even in the Andamans. A foreign visitor can come in for 30 days maximum. We need Indian workers to come out to Port Blair, and continue with the relief and reconstruction work. I am praying that at least a small team will be formed and will be able to come out here when our present team leaves in just about another week.
That's all for now.
Prayer for continued relief work, relocation and rebuilding of houses for those affected by the earthquake, for YWAM to get a team in here to work for the long haul, for opportunities for others, both Indians and visitors, to be able to assist here in the rebuilding effort, and for the message of assurance that the major quake is over to be spread out.
God bless you, thanks for reading this.
Mike Bordon
mike_lora@myrealbox.com
I talked with Joseph and Jonah, YWAM team members now in Port Blair. Their DTS outreach team of nine is busy doing relief work. This is a team who went to the Andamans on a DTS outreach and found themselves in the middle of a disaster! The team is staying on the main island of the Andaman and Nicobar chain. They are currently living with a local pastor.
They are reaching out to tsunami victims at a temporary relief camp at Nirmala Higher Secondary School. They are mainly involved in grief counselling, seeking to comfort the people and help them in whatever way they can. We urgently need to get resources to them. The immediate need is for sarees, bed sheets, and “chappals” (another name for flip-flops or rubber slip-on sandals).
The town of Port Blair was not totally devastated. There was significant damage in the coastal areas, the main dock structure was completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt before even a navy ship could arrive with supplies. Joseph, the team leader told me that for the first three days after the tidal waves, many people were wailing and crying in the streets. There was much fear and panic. That has begun to subside.
There has been little news about the southerly Nicobar islands. Some of those islands may have been completely covered by water, as they were close to the epicenter. Joseph said that one of the first ships from an outer island brought in about 40 high school aged youth yesterday, so we see tsunami victims coming into Port Blair where more facilities and relief supplies are available. We will probably see more of this. A pastor has asked our team to begin ministering to these forty young people. We need immediate resources to do this.
By Wednesday we are flying three additional aid workers into the Andamans. Elena, the DTS leader of this team will join them. She is trained in relief and development. Along with her, Ravi and Sanjay, from the YWAM North India Disaster Relief team will bring water purification units. These are electric filter devices that can purify 80,000 liters of water, enough for an entire village, in a short time period. We are told these work fast! We presently have one of these units travelling on a truck from village to village in Tamil Nadu, providing much needed water. We would like to use these in outer villages and island areas of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. To do this, we will need portable generators. These will be purchased in Port Blair.
We are presently organizing another team to go to the Andamans and possibly other islands for assessment as to what needs to be done. I will travel with Silo Schmidt, our Regional Director and one or two others. After that visit we will know more clearly our next steps.
We urgently need at least $2000 for air tickets, $2,000 for generators, $10,000 to 20,000 for immediate relief use, expenses of workers on the ground, purchase of clothing, food, medicines, etc. The sooner we get this, the sooner we can get it to the people in need in the Andamans.
We appreciate you standing with us on this.
For Prayer:
- Pray for the people of Andaman and Nicobar who are hurting and in shock
- Pray for the three relief workers that leave on Wednesday.
- Pray for the DTS team in the islands, for guidance and open doors to minister.
- Pray for finances.
- Pray for our survey team who will fly in soon.
- Pray for favor with the Government and a “man of peace.” This is a huge need!
- Pray for access to Nicobar Islands
Thanks,
Mike & Lora Bordon
Bordons Prayer Requests at www.geocities.com/mlb7in
Photos of Tidal wave Damage in Chennai at:
http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/asiatsunami2004/index.html
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