Bohol Island Devastated by Killer Quake
In less than one minutes on October 15th, the quaint tropical island of Bohol was set back 20 years in development by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake and the subsequent 1000 plus aftershocks. The toppling of homes, stores, schools, hospitals, and 500 year old churches were only a foreshadowing of the realities of the long term effects of loss of communications, water, power, and passable roads. Even knowing the death toll is impossible because many communities are totally cut off. Thousands of people have lost their homes, schools have been rendered unusable, as well as many hospitals and government buildings.
IDEA has been serving on Bohol for over 30 years and immediately began assisting those in need after the quake from food to temporary shelters.
IDEA has deaf schools in the two worst hit towns on the island. Both Sagbayan and Loon towns have been terribly impacted. Our first priority is to care for the kids, teachers, and dorm parents. As our dormitories have been badly damaged, we need to repair or reconstructed them. This is also true with classrooms. Extra measures are needed to get food and water to these schools as supply routes are almost totally destroyed in some areas. Funds are greatly needed to accomplish these tasks.
We are so fortunate to be able to initially field 35 well-trained deaf men who are experts in construction. Our goal is to: make building materials available to those who have lost everything. Within four weeks we will add to our core group of deaf men and have three construction teams permanently set up in the worst hit areas producing hollow block for rebuilding. We will also be cutting dimensional coconut lumber to be used to put up light material structures. With the use of generators, compressors, and nail guns, we will be able to quickly assist many families in achieving basic shelter. We need funds to support our deaf construction crews and the required equipment as well as pay for the basic construction materials.
ANY DONATIONS WILL BE HELPFUL.
IDEA Provides Critical Relief Aid
On October 18th IDEA was able to put together over 500 survival food and water bags and distribute them around the Sagbayan town, the epicenter of the 7.2 quake just four days earlier. Many people are working to restore services to the area but the continued aftershocks make this difficult. For this reason, relief aids is crucial at this point. The next phase will be to help people set up better temporary structures other than tents.
Fe and her family pictured below are just one of thousands of families whose homes were totally destroyed or severely damaged. Her family is the first to receive assistance from IDEA’s “Provide a Shelter” project. They were forced to move into a tent after their concrete home partially collapsed. IDEA sent in its deaf men construction team to jack up the roof, demolish the broken walls and columns, and put up new wooden posts and bamboo walling. They are back in their home in less than a week after the quake.
IDEA is also building “Emergency Hut Houses” that will be given away to people all over the island of Bohol who have lost their homes to the earthquake. There are over 100 families just amongst IDEA’s staff and students that had their homes totally destroyed. IDEA’s goal is to put out 100 of these “Huts” in 30 days and to get those families out of tents. Beyond IDEA’s families, our deaf crew plans to build many hundreds of homes for others who are now homeless in Bohol.
These Emergency Hut Houses are made of coconut tree lumber and woven bamboo walling. They will either be placed on the cement slab of the demolished home or set off the ground about a foot on stilts. When ever possible we will recycle the roofs off their destroyed homes in an effort to economize. IDEA will have three crews in the field to set up the panelized homes but when a needy family has the skill and capability themselves, the panels along with some basic tools and nails, will be just dropped at their site so they can assemble the house them themselves.
Meanwhile, back at the shop we will have an assembly line type of operation staffed by IDEA’s deaf construction crew pumping out scores of panels every day.
