Current
SSPX News
The
Typhoon "FRANK" hit the House of Bethany in Jaro, Iloilo
City, Philippines
June
21, 2008
The House
of Bethany is at present composed of four Oblate Sisters of the
SSPX, an 89 year old Carmelite Sister and twelve Bethanians. Due
to expensive rates of house rentals in Manila, last 25 March 2008
the whole community moved from Manila to Jaro, Iloilo City, in
the island of Panay, located in the Central part of the Philippines.
The yearly succession of typhoons that pass through this country
affects mostly the northern and central islands. The previous
destructive typhoon in Iloilo was in 1990 which left several buildings
roofless and trees fallen or bare. This time the typhoon "FRANK"
poured so much water that two of the dams of Iloilo ceded, thus
causing flood everywhere . It is said that in fifty years there
had never been a flood such as this. In fact, the population was
caught unprepared including us at the House of Bethany.
It
was on Saturday, 21 June 2008 at around 4.30 pm., the rain had
been intermittent since the previous night, while the community
was having a short break from the choir practice in preparation
for the Sunday Mass when the security guard of our church asked
permission if a group of persons whose house had been flooded
could have refuge in our property. That time the water had not
reached us yet, and impelled by curiosity we went to check outside
and behold, we saw the water from the overflowing river, distant
ca. 200 meters away, as if running towards the church and then
inside our cloister (built some 40 centimeters higher than the
church exterior ground level and in quadrangular form) through
two small gates at the entrance. Further down there was the kitchen
door which also became a channel for the flood water. At this
sudden happening most of us had recourse to prayer in the church
while few others were watching the water and going around not
knowing exactly what to do. We could not believe our eyes especially
because at the moment it was only drizzling. We would have wanted
to block the water from entering but impossible. We thought of
our things to save but rather confused about where to start. We
immediately informed Father Couture on the phone and asked briefly
for prayers. He told us to put Saint Joseph's statue outside the
house, and we did. Now the water started entering the house and
in a quarter of an hour it was high below the knee. We advised
everyone to save some things from the house and take to the church
choir loft. First of all, we thought of accompanying our old Sister
Maria Carmela to the church, but as the water outside was higher,
it was impossible for Sister to walk, luckily the security guard,
always ready to help us, carried her in his arms to the church.
There she prayed while the rest of us were quickly moving books,
gadgets, food, etc onto the higher shelves or tables or any higher
surface with the hope that the water level would not reach them.
Unfortunately, we were not able to save everything: the panic
of the first moments had overcome us, besides, there was not much
higher surface on which to lean all our things. Everyone was occupied
in saving whatever was thought of more value and of primary needs
and were taken to the church sacristy, the place of our refuge
which is about eight meters away from the kitchen door.
Half
an houf later the water in the house was above the knee level.
Luckily, that afternoon Father Roy Dolotina was around having
been caught in the flood after his meeting with the "Apostles
of Mary". He and the security guard helped us lift our two
washing machines and two refrigerators, already in the water,
onto higher surface.
Our
Sister cook had the previous day made provisions good for a week,
though she had to cook the perishable fish and meat at once on
the following day as the refrigerators were off. A good quantity
of vegetables and fruit floated in the flood water. The drinking
water was also lacking as there had not been electricity on which
the water pressure depended, therefore we had recourse to boiling
rain water for drinking. Meanwhile our good security guard prepared
for us an improvised bridge between the kitchen and the sacristy
out of old bamboo beds and a ladder, thus we were still able to
transport kitchen utensils to the sacristy.
At
around 7.00 pm the water outside reached about one meter high
while inside the church, though elevated, the feet of the pews
were in the water which soon seemed to reach the sanctuary, the
same level as the sacristy. Worries and hope filled our souls
while watching the water still rising. The sanctuary lamp and
some candles were our only source of natural light. That very
moment a thought had vividly crossed the mind of one among us
that the main reason for such calamity was the punishment for
our sins thus we had to be resigned to the Divine Will. At the
lowest step before the altar was Father Dolotina praying the Divine
Office in silence while the whole community were gathered with
him in silent prayer around the Blessed Sacrament and in front
of the image of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, the center of all
our hope. When Father had finished his prayers, we recited the
Holy Rosary together with inexplicable disposition. After the
prayers one of us had been inspired to take with confidence the
same image of Our Blessed Mother of Perpetual Help to touch the
flood water at the communion rail and had the assurance that the
water would no longer rise higher than how it was. Indeed, it
never rose higher any longer.
At
9.00 pm after the prayers we had some sandwiches at the sacristy
standing along the corridor. Looking at each other’s face
we burst into laughter as we saw how miserable we all appeared:
wet and untidy; the sisters’ white habits became brown from
hips down. Yet God did not abandon us, He gave us enough humour
and courage to face the reality. After Compline we went to sleep
anywhere we would feel less uncomfortable. Father had the other
wing of the sacristy on his own, the old Sister remained seated
on the priest’s throne near the right side altar, four rested
on the pews, but later one became wet as her habit touched the
water so she went up to the loft and nicely curled herself under
a pile of chairs, while all the rest went up straight to the narrow
choir loft and laid down on the floor over some extended towels.
In the middle of the night some, unable to sleep, recited the
fifteen decades of the Holy Rosary to implore Our Blessed Mother’s
protection. In addition, deep in the night, a neighbor’s
dog left locked in the house started wailing loud until the master
came back in the morning. Many people evacuated their homes and
went to public buildings for the night.
The
following morning, Sunday, the water had much subsided, though
not totally, leaving mud behind due to the landslide that had
taken place in some area. A low Mass was celebrated at the usual
time, 10.30 am. Out of around 150 only a dozen faithful did attend
the Mass. The public transport did not operate except some taxis.
Most of the people’s private cars had been immersed the
whole night in the water.
For
us the aftermath of the flood is the worst. There was no electricity
for three days while the water problem has not yet been solved
until the present moment, in fact, we are still buying water for
drinking. In order to clean one small room it would need around
seven persons to brush the wall and other three to provide continuous
water taken from the well through the manual pump. The cleaning
of the pieces of furniture as well as utensils and linens has
not yet been completely done until now. The damage has been considerable
but thinking of the others that have been stricken worse than
us we can still say that we have been lucky. Our poor handyman
has lost his house and other property but he has saved his pregnant
wife, who delivered a baby after two weeks, and three small children.
Another man had taken his wife to safety and returned to his house
to save his money but was carried away by the flood and was found
dead still clasping the money in his hands. Thus the typhoon “Frank”
has left an indelible image in many especially in those whose
family members had been snatched away either by the flashflood
or by the ferry disaster, the “Princess of the Stars”
that overturned that same Saturday night near Romblon, not very
far from Panay, the island of Iloilo. May the victims rest in
peace!
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