El Salvador quake

Report from El Salvador

Presbyterian student volunteer finds her role -- in relief efforts after the quake in El Salvador

Marcia Towers, a Presbyterian mission volunteer in El Salvador, has sent an update report on relief efforts there, and some of the possibilities (and problems) for those who want to help.

Marcia has sent a new report, two weeks after the quake, about the shift to focus on rebuilding. [1-30-01]

In her latest letter, dated 3/23/01, Marcia reports on continuing efforts for "recuperation."

[This note was dated 1-22-01, and is published here on the same date.]

Click here for an earlier report from Marcia Towers.
Click here for a report from Karla Koll in Guatemala.

Friends,

I'm sorry I haven't been in closer touch during this time after the earthquake here. I've slept every night since Saturday (the day of the earthquake) in the buildings of ALFALIT, which have the capacity to host many people, and are only about three blocks from the office. At first I was sleeping there because it is a much safer place to be during all of the aftershocks. We were having strong aftershocks definitely through Wednesday, but I think they're finally tapering off.

Now I'm still sleeping in these buildings, along with several people from the office, because I've been working this week from about 7 in the morning to around 8 at night every day, and talking to a million people for a few hours after that. I've only been home once since Saturday for 15 minutes to get clean clothes. We were in overdrive for this whole week and we're starting to get worn out. It's becoming more and more madness sleeping at ALFALIT because more and more people are arriving either to help or as a refuge if their houses are uninhabitable. ALFALIT has opened up their buildings with food and shelter for those who need the help.

Every day since Sunday, we've been working on immediate relief efforts with the Reformed Church and ALFALIT. Sunday we were in the office sending out messages to the world to let them know the status here. Monday a few more people arrived to the office (about 6 people from the office lost their houses, and didn't come back to work right away most of the country was shut down on Monday). So the few people that did come on Monday split up and went to the different communities where we work to assess the damage.

Many of the communities are very far into the country, only accessible by foot. They found damage to houses in every community, but thankfully no loss of life among those with whom we directly work. Some communities found all of their houses collapsed, others had holes in walls or ceiling. Tuesday, we broke into work teams to look for large quantities of medicine, food, basic household supplies, and water. Those supplies arrived early Wednesday morning, and they took them to several communities the same day, and other communities on Thursday.

I don't have an exact count of the communities we're working in, but I'd guess around 20 or 25 they are the communities where we have either churches or outreaches of microcredit or other development projects through ALFALIT. We're starting with the parts of the country where we have contacts, and spreading out through those communities including the people whom we hadn't worked with before.

This phase for the next two weeks or so is pure relief delivery of supplies that people need to live outside their houses while they're really without house and recovering from the shock. After two weeks or so we'll start the reconstruction phase.

Within our overall effort here, we split up into committees one to oversee everything, one for finances, one for pastoral care for people reacting strongly to this trauma, etc. I believe it was just because I have a good camera, that I ended up the coordinator of communications. Great. So now for the first time in my life I'm a reporter. I'm learning all kinds of new things here all the time. I'm making brochures to send out frequently to keep people updated on our activities ... and working with a woman who happened to be here for a few weeks on other business before the earthquake, who has a video camera. It's kind of funny because I'd just returned to the office after Christmas break, ready to start over again figuring out my role in the office, when all of a sudden we had an earthquake and my role was just thrown in front of my eyes.

I know that everyone would like to help, and I have some ideas for you.

First, tell people about what's going on here. The media is just about done covering the earthquake here within a few days you're not going to hear any more, but people are still living under plastic and sticks without food or work. Tell your churches or whatever groups you have contacts with who might want to send relief donations.

Also, there are many ways to give.

Whatever you do please don't give to an organization that gives to the government here. I am appalled at the politics that take place here during this disaster relief. The departamentos - equivalent to counties - receive aid based almost purely on whether they have a mayor from the ruling party here - and the most damaged departamento for example has received almost zero.

You can channel money through the Presbyterian Disaster Relief organization, which channels some of their money through us and is very reliable. You can send a personal check written to "Presbyterian Church, USA" and note PDA Account No. 9-2000140 for El Salvador, and send the check to:

Central Receiving Offices
Section 3000
Louisville, KY 40289

Or you can give by credit card on the internet at http://pda.pcusa.org/ or by phone at 1-800-872-3283.

Feel free to forward this email if you think others can help...

My friends, nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I´ll write more soon, I hope. Tomorrow I'm off to two more communities to see what help they need. I'm going to start driving in this crazy country.

Keep the people here in your prayers.

Love, Marcia

====== Iglesia Reformada Calvinista de El Salvador ======

Colonia Santa Fe,
Calle Las Violetas, casa Nº 2
San Salvador
Apartado Postal No. 2241 (Centro de Gobierno)
Telefonos: (503) 235-8603 (503) 235-3149
Fax: (503) 225-9220
E-mail: IRCES@netcomsa.com

A Presbyterian student reports on the quake in El Salvador -- as one who is there

[1-18-01]

This message is from Marcia Towers, who is living and working in El Salvador as part of a peacemaking/international mission exchange program of the Presbyterian Church, USA. She was active at Cooper House and was graduated from Virginia Tech last spring.

It came to us via Catherine C. Snyder, Presbyterian Campus Minister serving in Blacksburg, VA

Well, life's not boring here, that's for sure.

I was riding innocently along in a little microbus on Saturday when all of a sudden it felt like the driver was slamming on the brakes and lurching the microbus. Then I saw all kinds of flocks of birds flying all over the place yelling, and people all along the street screaming. So it turns out we'd just had this huge earthquake - 7.6 on the Richter scale. Incredible.

I continued on my journey a little bit longer because I didn't realize the magnitude of what had just happened. I made it to a part of town that was one of the hardest hit, until the bus couldn't pass and turned around to try another route. I got off at that point and came back to the office where I've basically been ever since.

In this part of town I first started seeing holes in walls and surfaces of walls fallen. Then bigger holes and entire houses collapsed. Everyone in the world was in the street in case another aftershock hit and collapsed more. The number of dead (how do you say that nicely) in the country last night was 400, and is growing rapidly as people dig under the mud.

Since Saturday I've been back here in the office learning much more of the catastrophe. In some towns, 80 to 90% of the houses were destroyed. One neighborhood near where I was on the bus was completely covered in a landslide - 150 houses and the number of dead still rising. People were calling from cell phones from underground to ask for help.

At least 6 of my co-workers completely lost their houses. We just got water service back where I am last night, and many parts of the country don't have energy or water. Many of the roads between towns are still completely impassible. Some of them are covered in almost 3 meters of mud.

Many of the churches that we work with here are far into the countryside and extremely poor. Their houses are of adobe - mud and stone, really.

Starting today we're going to visit the communities to see the damage, and ask for help from there. But we already know that many of the church communities have lost their houses. So far we don't know of any loss of life of church members or family.

I've been sleeping in a part of the office where I can be enclosed from the street, but under a tent like thing instead of inside a building, because the aftershocks continue. We're almost at 48 hours later, and there are still really strong aftershocks, and everyone is very afraid that we'll get hit with another one strong enough to do much more damage.

Please keep people here in your prayers, especially for the calm of the people and for hope and strength to continue more than anything else. Because imagine being in a state where you're struggling to put food on the table every day and all of a sudden there is no table. Or house.

If you find channels there through your churches or Red Cross or whatever to give, it would be wonderful. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Love, Marcia

Witherspooner Karla Koll reports on the earthquake in Central America
[1-15-01]

Click here for the latest news from El Salvador, on the PC(USA) web site. [1-16-01]

Dear Friends and Family,

On Saturday morning we were down on the Presbyterian Seminary in San Felipe. Shortly after the worship service celebrating the beginning of the new academic year had ended, the ground shook for several seconds. We've had a lot of tremors lately, so we didn't think much about it. Only later did we hear the news of the damage and deaths in El Salvador and eastern Guatemala. The quake caused a small landslide which blocked the highway between San Felipe and Quetzaltenango, but the highway was quickly reopened and we were able to return to Quetzaltenango without any problem.

Below I have pasted the message [click here to read it] I received early this morning from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. As has been the case with other "natural" disasters in this region in the last few years, human factors, such as poorly constructed housing and inadequate civil defense structures unable to respond effectively, have contributed to the high number of deaths. Please keep the people of the affected communities in your prayers.

Paz,

Karla

Out of chaos, hope

Karla Ann Koll, Javier Torrez, Tamara Torrez-Koll
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

kakjtb@xela.net.gt
alternative e-mail: karla.koll@ptsem.edu