Monday, February 8, 2010

Going into Survival Mode from Lori


Thought you might like to know more about my time in San Vicente while the bridge was out. I arrived in SV with missionaries Dave and Lynne Johnson on Wed. Jan. 20th. When we passed over the bridge as we entered town, a small steam could be seen in the wash (seldom is there any water in it). The nightime hours brought a couple of inches of rain in town, however in the mountians east of town a more significant amount had fallen. The next morning, Pastor Jose knocked on the door to inform us that a large section of the road leading up to the bridge had been washed away in a flash flood and that we should fill the gas tank on the vehicle and get our drinking bottles filled. He also had heard that the road south of town has been washed away in sections, resulting in the SV community being cut off both north and south. The towns well had be damaged by the flood also.
So, we moved into survival mode:
Filling the 5 gal. drinking water bottles,
putting out the 5 gal. buckets under the eaves to catch rain water (used to wash dishes) and if need be, make into rainwater pure enough for drinking,
we began rationing the propane used for cooking (no one uses electric stoves as there are no 220 lines),
also rationing the water we had in the storage tank and using the caught rain water,
walking when needed to save the gas in the truck.

Within 24 hours of the roads being down, there was no drinking water, gas, or propane in SV and the grocery store shelves were bare. We were in good shape with food as we had gone shopping before returning to SV.

Years of living and working in Mexico helped me to automatically shift into survial mode, however, the most difficult thing was not being able to communicate with family and friends that we weren safe. You see, the phone lines were in the bridge and even cell phone were not working.

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