NEWS HEADLINES - APRIL 5, 2012
Buenos Aires hit by deadly storm
At least 14 people have been killed in severe storms in Argentina. Most of the victims died in the province of Buenos Aires, where winds reached speeds of more than 100km (60 miles) an hour, toppling trees and causing roofs to cave in.
APRIL 8, 2012
Municipal workers take part in an operation to clean fallen trees on April 8, 2012 in Moron municipality, Buenos Aires, after a storm. AFP PHOTO / NA
But wow, what a storm! We were in a member´s house at the time, teaching a less-active brother and his nonmember son. We had just shared the story about Alma the Younger´s visit by an angel (´Can ye therefore deny the power of God?´) when the storm picked up and the lights cut. We sat in silence for a few seconds, then the father said, ´Let´s not talk about Alma anymore.´ We waited out the storm (it all happened pretty quickly - less than an hour, I think), bagged up our possessions to protect them from the rain, and departed to make the journey home. Surprisingly, the rain stopped as soon as we left the house, but it was near pitch black outside and the streets were filled with water. I made it aaaalmost all the way home without actually having to submerse my feet in the water, but then we came to a street that was filled from one side to the other with water, ankle deep. (I looked around for Moses, but in vain.) It took about 3 days for my shoes to dry, but they seem to be okay now.
Much of Villa Amelia is without water and without light. But so far, that hasn´t affected our proselyting much. We had a lesson by candlelight, and we took some water from our pension to another family. But everywhere you go, there are trees ripped up and twisted and falling over. It´s pretty tremendous. And our area isn´t the worst! Apparently there was a small tornado in Ituzaingo and the whole central plaza was destroyed. Cripes. And the missionaries were moved out of Luján. Wow. We´re blessed to be where we are.
I was very confused for the first day after the storm due to misintrepreting ´poste de luz´ (light pole) as ´postre de luz´ (cake of light). I wondered why people were complaining if cakes of light were falling out of the sky.
Thousands without power in Buenos Aires after storm
Municipal workers take part in an operation to clean fallen trees on April 8, 2012 in Moron municipality, Buenos Aires, after a storm. AFP PHOTO / NA
BUENOS AIRES—Thousands of people were still in the dark Sunday days after a major storm killed 17 people and knocked out electric service in many areas of Buenos Aires, authorities said.
The storm hit late Wednesday and flooded many neighborhoods in outlying areas of the capital city, toppling power lines and trees and damaging buildings.
“In many cases, the power distribution network has to be rebuilt from scratch,” said Eduardo Mirabelli, spokesman for the private power company Edenor which supplies 2.3 million clients.
In one hard hit town alone, Ituzaingo, just west of the capital, at least 4,000 power lines were blasted off their footings and power lines were downed mostly under trees, Mirabelli said.
“The damage really has outstripped our response capacity,” he said, adding that the company had 45 trucks out repairing the network.
More than 50,000 people in Merlo had no power or drinking water on Sunday due to the storm, local official Lucas Ghi said.
We have been in contact with all of our missionaries. There are some without power as of this moment. We are delivering water and talking with them regularly to monitor the situation. There was a violent storm Wednesday night that caused significant power outages throughout the city. However, please be comforted and know that we are working our plan to best address the needs of each area and ensure the safety of each missionary.
Later in the day ...
The missionaries without power and water have now all been moved to fully functioning apartments.
Sunday, April 8
I want share a little more information about our storm. We are dealing with the effects of the “wind bursts” that came Wednesday evening after a day of unseasonably warm weather that gave way to dramatically cooler temperatures. The rain, hail and wind that followed caused severe damage including crumbled walls, collapsed ceilings, wind-thrown debris including masonry, crushed cars and fallen trees and power poles. (Some of the poles fell of their own accord and others were collapsed as the nearby trees toppled them.)
As we were driving to the airport last night, I was amazed at the devastation that we witnessed. I grabbed my camera and was able to get a couple of pictures. It reminded me very much of what we see in Florida after a hurricane. The difference being that Florida is much more prepared for this kind of disaster and the aftereffects. "The level of virulence of this storm is not normal," said Diego Santilli, the city's environment minister, "The winds were similar to those of a tornado."
We saw downed power lines. Huge trees were uprooted as if they were nothing more than a pesky garden weed, and we saw other trees whose giant limbs were snapped as if they were nothing more than matchsticks. Besides the power restorations necessary, the cleanup effort is going to have to be massive.
The missionaries are very focused on their work and they are used to losing power from time to time. For them, this storm seemed like a minor inconvenience. When we began pulling them out of their areas yesterday, it seemed to be the first time that they realized that this storm was much more than they imagined.
We had been delivering water to some areas and the missionaries with the help of the members and their investigators had been creative in obtaining their necessities, nevertheless, their resources were quickly becoming depleted.
After many prayers and consulting with the area presidency here and the missionary department in Salt Lake, we decided to move 54 of our missionaries. There were a few companionships that actually had their power back already, but the majority of the areas where they lived were without power causing some serious knock-on effects.
You can imagine that it took us most of Saturday to coordinate this scale of a move. Between the missionaries being moved and the missionaries receiving additional occupants in their pensions, it was quite a day.
We moved the entire zone of Gonzalez Catan and almost the entire zone of Merlo. Lujan, Marcos Paz, Moreno and Ramos Mejia were able to house their missionaries in other parts of their zones.
The missionaries were extremely sad to have to leave their areas and more importantly, their investigators. It is a beautiful thing to witness the love that they have for this work. We have no idea how long it could be until power is restored having heard estimates from hours to weeks.
Of course, the prayers of our fast today included not only the petition that the visas for our waiting missionaries will come soon, but also, that all of our missionaries will be able to safely return to their areas very soon.
And so we go, limping forward at this moment in the mission, but we go forward with full faith that patience will have her perfect work. This work is perfect. We have the perfect plan of our Father and the perfect obedience of our Savior that truly leaves us wanting nothing. How blessed we are to be able to share this Good News.
The storm hit late Wednesday and flooded many neighborhoods in outlying areas of the capital city, toppling power lines and trees and damaging buildings.
“In many cases, the power distribution network has to be rebuilt from scratch,” said Eduardo Mirabelli, spokesman for the private power company Edenor which supplies 2.3 million clients.
In one hard hit town alone, Ituzaingo, just west of the capital, at least 4,000 power lines were blasted off their footings and power lines were downed mostly under trees, Mirabelli said.
“The damage really has outstripped our response capacity,” he said, adding that the company had 45 trucks out repairing the network.
More than 50,000 people in Merlo had no power or drinking water on Sunday due to the storm, local official Lucas Ghi said.
MESSAGES FROM SISTER CARTER, THE MISSION MOM
Saturday, April 7We have been in contact with all of our missionaries. There are some without power as of this moment. We are delivering water and talking with them regularly to monitor the situation. There was a violent storm Wednesday night that caused significant power outages throughout the city. However, please be comforted and know that we are working our plan to best address the needs of each area and ensure the safety of each missionary.
Later in the day ...
The missionaries without power and water have now all been moved to fully functioning apartments.
Sunday, April 8
I want share a little more information about our storm. We are dealing with the effects of the “wind bursts” that came Wednesday evening after a day of unseasonably warm weather that gave way to dramatically cooler temperatures. The rain, hail and wind that followed caused severe damage including crumbled walls, collapsed ceilings, wind-thrown debris including masonry, crushed cars and fallen trees and power poles. (Some of the poles fell of their own accord and others were collapsed as the nearby trees toppled them.)
As we were driving to the airport last night, I was amazed at the devastation that we witnessed. I grabbed my camera and was able to get a couple of pictures. It reminded me very much of what we see in Florida after a hurricane. The difference being that Florida is much more prepared for this kind of disaster and the aftereffects. "The level of virulence of this storm is not normal," said Diego Santilli, the city's environment minister, "The winds were similar to those of a tornado."
We saw downed power lines. Huge trees were uprooted as if they were nothing more than a pesky garden weed, and we saw other trees whose giant limbs were snapped as if they were nothing more than matchsticks. Besides the power restorations necessary, the cleanup effort is going to have to be massive.
The missionaries are very focused on their work and they are used to losing power from time to time. For them, this storm seemed like a minor inconvenience. When we began pulling them out of their areas yesterday, it seemed to be the first time that they realized that this storm was much more than they imagined.
We had been delivering water to some areas and the missionaries with the help of the members and their investigators had been creative in obtaining their necessities, nevertheless, their resources were quickly becoming depleted.
After many prayers and consulting with the area presidency here and the missionary department in Salt Lake, we decided to move 54 of our missionaries. There were a few companionships that actually had their power back already, but the majority of the areas where they lived were without power causing some serious knock-on effects.
You can imagine that it took us most of Saturday to coordinate this scale of a move. Between the missionaries being moved and the missionaries receiving additional occupants in their pensions, it was quite a day.
We moved the entire zone of Gonzalez Catan and almost the entire zone of Merlo. Lujan, Marcos Paz, Moreno and Ramos Mejia were able to house their missionaries in other parts of their zones.
The missionaries were extremely sad to have to leave their areas and more importantly, their investigators. It is a beautiful thing to witness the love that they have for this work. We have no idea how long it could be until power is restored having heard estimates from hours to weeks.
Of course, the prayers of our fast today included not only the petition that the visas for our waiting missionaries will come soon, but also, that all of our missionaries will be able to safely return to their areas very soon.
And so we go, limping forward at this moment in the mission, but we go forward with full faith that patience will have her perfect work. This work is perfect. We have the perfect plan of our Father and the perfect obedience of our Savior that truly leaves us wanting nothing. How blessed we are to be able to share this Good News.
ANDREW'S EXPERIENCE ...
As you heard, we had a pretty powerful storm this week, which turned out to be a lot more widespread than I had realized. I had no idea missionaries were being moved out of their areas. You´ll be pleased to know (as we are) that Elder Carazas and I are safe. Our pension is located in one of the few small areas in the whole zone of Castelar that still has water and electricity. But wow, what a storm! We were in a member´s house at the time, teaching a less-active brother and his nonmember son. We had just shared the story about Alma the Younger´s visit by an angel (´Can ye therefore deny the power of God?´) when the storm picked up and the lights cut. We sat in silence for a few seconds, then the father said, ´Let´s not talk about Alma anymore.´ We waited out the storm (it all happened pretty quickly - less than an hour, I think), bagged up our possessions to protect them from the rain, and departed to make the journey home. Surprisingly, the rain stopped as soon as we left the house, but it was near pitch black outside and the streets were filled with water. I made it aaaalmost all the way home without actually having to submerse my feet in the water, but then we came to a street that was filled from one side to the other with water, ankle deep. (I looked around for Moses, but in vain.) It took about 3 days for my shoes to dry, but they seem to be okay now.
Much of Villa Amelia is without water and without light. But so far, that hasn´t affected our proselyting much. We had a lesson by candlelight, and we took some water from our pension to another family. But everywhere you go, there are trees ripped up and twisted and falling over. It´s pretty tremendous. And our area isn´t the worst! Apparently there was a small tornado in Ituzaingo and the whole central plaza was destroyed. Cripes. And the missionaries were moved out of Luján. Wow. We´re blessed to be where we are.
I was very confused for the first day after the storm due to misintrepreting ´poste de luz´ (light pole) as ´postre de luz´ (cake of light). I wondered why people were complaining if cakes of light were falling out of the sky.
Needless to say, we are very grateful Andrew is safe ... and very thankful for inspired and experienced Priesthood leaders who know how to handle these kinds of situations.
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