Typhoon hits the Philippines

You probably know more about the weather here than we do, as we don't have TV, radio, very seldom read the newspaper, and we are the only senior missionaries on the island, but we do go to Manila quite often and we hear from the members here. It seams different but we don't get the big storms here on Palawan. We are a little island a few hundred miles out in the middle of the ocean, but apparently the other islands protect Palawan from the Typhoons that a lot of the other areas get. It has rained here harder than we new that it could rain, but we are so close to the ocean that the water runs off fast and usually doesn't cause very much damage. Last Friday President Howard and I had a meeting at the Area office with Elder Teh of the first Quorum of the Seventy and a Counselor in the Area Presidency and we had a chance to go downstairs where they have set up a command center to monitor the flood activity and send help where it is needed. Elder Misaluche of the Seventy was overseeing the activity, they had Tvs, and weather monitors, with several people on the phones, seeing who needed help and directing people and supplies to them. The Manila area got hit hard two weeks ago along with the entire what they refer to here as the mainland, then the storm continued to pound the North end on the island. I'm not sure how far that is from Manila, but it takes 6-8 hours by bus to get to that area. The latest information that we have is that there have been over 700 storm related deaths, including over 40 church members, 22 LDS chapels have been destroyed and others were damaged. All of the missionaries are safe, however a few of the apartments were flooded. We are back on Palawan and all is well here.