We had an incredible surprise this evening! Now that power has been restored to Jonathan's apartment, President Robison had him call home to let us know that he and his new companion, Elder Nielsen, survived Omar. Believe it or not, Jonathan slept through it! He said he was exhausted because he traveled all day on Tuesday, October 14th to go to Georgetown, Guyana. Then he got up at 3 AM on Wednesday, October 15th to catch his fight to St. Maarten with brief stops in Trinidad and Barbados. He did report that the pilots had some concerns about getting to Sint Maarten before the hurricane. Apparently they closed the airport about 5 hours after his flight landed. He also told us that he was traveling alone from Guyana and was the only missionary on the flights. What he seemed most excited about was getting to have a cheeseburger for lunch after leaving the airport!
Jonathan said that their apartment is in a little valley so they didn't get the severe winds they had on the coast. They only had a little bit of water in their kitchen. They had minimal damage in their area and have spent time helping to clean things up.
Jonathan had really been looking forward to having a cold glass of milk and a hot shower when he arrived in St. Maarten (he has had neither since leaving the MTC). Omar has delayed both. Their power was been out beginning before dawn on Thursday, so they have not been able to keep their food cold. They did find a case of Ramen Noodles and bag of pancake mix and that is what they have been eating for most of their meals. Jon also said they bought some frozen burritos yesterday. They needed to be eaten so he and Elder Nielsen each ate 2 for dinner last night and 3 for lunch today!
We are so glad to know that he is safe and in good spirits.
St. Maarten Emerges Unscathed After Passage of Hurricane Omar
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten, Oct 16, 2008 -- Water & Wind Damage Reported - No Deaths Attributed to Storm
The Government of St. Maarten reports that Hurricane Omar,
a Category Three storm when it passed St. Maarten in the early morning hours of Thursday, October 16, 2008, did not result in any deaths or significant damages to its infrastructure or hotel sector.
While most of the damage appears to be limited to beach erosion and scattered debris that are associated with a storm of this caliber, it is anticipated that within the next 12 hours all public utilities, including electricity, which experience scattered outages during the storm, will be fully functional. The Princess Juliana International Airport is expected to open the morning of October 17th and will resume operating on a normal schedule, as will banks, financial institutions, supermarkets, hospitals, pharmacies, and other businesses.
"We are very thankful that our beautiful island only sustained minor damages and that our residents and guests weathered the storm safely," commented Roy Marlin, Commissioner of Tourism.
(St. Maarten is the little black dot. Click on the picture to enlarge.)Today we received this e-mail from the Platts.
Brother and Sister Larson,
We are the senior couple serving in St. Maarten.
Elder Larson asked that we send their address to you.
Elder Larson
Killebarn Drive 2
Sentry Hill, Cul De Sac
Sint Maarten, N. A.
There was little damage in the Elders area from the hurricane- just some banana trees down. The coastal areas were hit the most. They do not have power and probably won't get it for 4 mored days but they cook with gas and have food and are doing great. They may not be able to do emails on Monday but we may send them to the French side which has power and water as they weren't badly hit.
Elder and Sister Platt
This is a copy of today's post on the mission blog:
Omar and St Martin
Hurricane Omar passed over St Martin early Thursday morning,
Oct 16th. Poor Elder Larson was transferred there on Wednesday.
He got there just in time for the adventure. We kept in touch with the Platts - the missionary couple and all the missionaries stayed inside and were safe. Here is the latest report from the Platts:
Dear Family and Friends,
It is 4 am on October 18th and the power just came on. The hurricane came through here just after midnight on October 16th and left about 4am which means we have been exactly 48 hours without power so far. We had a brief 10 minutes of power the early morning of the 16th when I sent a quick message saying we were fine. The paper says we will be without power for 7 days except briefly as they try each area out so I will send this now.
It was a category 3 hurricane but the center was 90 miles from us. The damage sustained was from winds and strong waves. We are grateful that damage was mostly minor such as fallen trees, lots of debris, minor leaks and such. There was a curfew even after the storm so the crews could clean the roads of sand, huge rocks and fallen trees. They did a great job. Everyone spent the 17th cleaning up. The salt water that was carried inland causes the plants to turn brown so people were hauling debris to the curbs, garbage trucks spent the day yesterday constantly on the move picking up debris. People were washing plants, vehicles, houses etc. to get the salt off.
Our area has underground electricity so we hope to have full power soon. Much of the island has overhead power and they must repair all the poles before they will get power.
But we were very fortunate not to get a direct hit so food supplies
and such are not badly affected. Planes began flying late yesterday afternoon. Wharf repairs should be complete in a couple of days.
It is amazing to see the force of nature. The Elders on the French side just got a little water in their apartment from a leak. All French power is underground so they have been fine.
The Elders in Philipsburg have had no power so far. Their landline
is out and they can't charge their cell phone so we try to check with them when they are in their apartment but they are far from the sea and had no damage. Until they went out they didn't think it was bad!!!