Here are a few pictures of the damages suffered in the communities....
Tomorrow I will preparing a short training/ debriefing that our staff will be able to share with the communities sometime in the next few days. This will be followed up though by some much more in depth training and planning with community leaders (this is a project I have already been working in my position of disaster response and preparedness coordinator).
The majority of the damage of the earthquake occurred near the epicenter (some 70 miles south of Lima). Here is a brief overview that a friend of mine wrote up: As some of you have already heard, last night two consecutive earthquakes rocked Peru between 6 and 7 pm. They felt like one long earthquake and lasted about 2.5 minutes. The epicenter is about 70 miles south of Peru just off the coast of a city called Pisco. The quake was rated at 7.9. The damage in Lima has been minimal, but reports this morning say that 80% of the city was destroyed. The death toll right now is 337 people and another 1500 injured. Reports are just starting to come in now from our communities in Lima and so far there haven’t been reported any serious damage or injury.
Today I attended a government meeting with the FH-Peru country director and the national manager. From that meeting we have decided to send a small team (of which I will be a part), to go to Pisco to assess the needs, and see what connections we can make to respond to the immediate emergency situation there. Please be pray for safety and wisdom as we travel and try to figure out how to help meet the needs of the people. I should be returning to Lima sometime on Saturday or Sunday (and my parents will be kept informed of my whereabouts while I am gone).
Please also pray for:
The family member of those who have died. May they find comfort in the arms of loved ones. May they see they humble themselves before the makes of mountains, tectonic plates, and fault lines. May they find comfort and strength in the Lord Pray for the many injured and their families and they are rushed to flooded hospitals and some evacuated to Lima. Pray for healing and comfort for these families Pray for the families in the communities in which we work here in Lima. They are built on the sides of bare, rocky hills. Many of the homes are build on foundations held up by rickety retaining walls made simply of rocks stacked on top of each other. This paltry construction leaves the communities very vulnerable to quakes and aftershocks. When these walls fall down, the crush everything in their path as the roll to the bottom of the hills. I will go to the communities this morning to see if there has been any damage. Please pray that this earthquake will bring urgency to a new disaster relief prevention plan that we have been in the process of initiating on a national and local level. Pray for the leadership of Peru as they respond to this crisis. May they seek the Lord’s wisdom as they make many decisions about how to respond. Pray for the rescue workers and thousands of medical personnel that are responding to this crisis. Pray for Food for the Hungry’s leadership as we decide how best to respond to this crisis. But most of all, pray that God’s name will be made great through this disaster. God uses disasters like this to call attention to His sufficiency and sovereignty. May Peru get the message that they need Him. May they humble themselves before Him.
Thank you for your prayers. I will be updating you as soon as I know more information.
Blessings,
Lauren
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