The Destruction

This is Jen Hagen, a friend of Wade and Joanna's who also lives in the Philippines, posting this update to their blog on their behalf. They wanted to let you know what is going on with them in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Reming, but they are without power or internet so they are unable to do it themselves.

First of all, praise the Lord, they are all safe. Thank you for your prayers for them over the last week. However, their house and belongings did sustain some significant damage so they need your continued prayers. My husband, Steve, went down to help them out this past weekend, and he only just got back tonight with pictures. Since we have to go to Manila tomorrow, I don't have time enough to post all the pics I would like to on their behalf right now - but here a few to give you an idea.

The roads are debris-covered and barely passable. Steve said that there are some long sections of 2-lane highway that were covered entirely by the volcanic mud and there is only a one-lane ditch dug through the middle now to allow vehicles to pass. He was unable to get pics of the worst stretches because he could not stop along them.
You can see where the road here was washed out by the river. There was actually a squatter tenement in the center of this photo before the typhoon. There are no known survivors.

Steve said the destruction down there is absolutely unbelievable and indescribable. The whole province is in utter chaos. At least a thousand have been confirmed dead with many, many more still missing. Thousands more have lost their homes and livelihoods.

We praise God that Wade and Joanna and Carly and Caleb are safe. However, as I mentioned before, their house did not fare as well. They took refuge upstairs during the storm, and their entire first floor flooded with 3 1/2 feet of black muddy water. Their refrigerator was lying flat on its back, and all their other appliances were completely flooded. The biggest loss both financially and emotionally was definitely the school room. We had just been down there a couple weeks ago, and I was amazed with how cool Jo had set up the school room for Carly and Caleb's homeschooling. They had a great childrens book library, all their curriculum and workbooks, computer, musical instruments, and countless other precious items. All of it was covered in 3 1/2 feet of muddy water, and it looks like nearly everything was destroyed. Here are a couple pics of that room.
As you can imagine, this has been incredibly difficult on the Allens. They had only just recovered from the last typhoon (which came right after the volcano evacuation). To top it all off, yesterday there was a tsunami scare in their town where everyone in the town was screaming and panicking and running for higher ground. It ended up being a false alarm, but they are physically and emotionally drained and desperately need your prayers. They plan to spend another week doing clean-up then they plan to fly up to Manila for a few days of down time (in a place with water and electricity!). They are not sure yet where they will spend the holidays (we are hoping they will come see us here just south of Manila! :) ). Please continue to pray fervently for them during this difficult time.

I actually have a blogspot as well that our family uses. I don't know that I will be able to maintain 2 right now (life is crazy here for us too) and get all the pics on BOTH that I would like to be able to show you all on behalf of the Allens. So please feel free to check out our blog as well for more updates and pics on the aftermath of the typhoon. Just go to www.sjhagen.blogspot.com (Once you are Jo, I hope you don't mind the little free publicity for my blog... :) )