ANSWERING THE CALL
Five men travel to hurricane-stricken Puerto Rico to contribute to rebuilding efforts
On Sept. 6, 2017, Hurricane Irma ripped through Puerto Rico and decimated the Caribbean island. The storm hit at 10 p.m. By 4 a.m. there was dead calm, and Puerto Ricans thought the hurricane was over.
Unfortunately, Irma was only reversing direction. It travelled back over the same area with even stronger winds for another six hours. News reports of the devastation tugged at hearts around the world, but none more powerfully than Garry Koop’s.
Koop, a member of Nutana Mennonite Church, felt compelled to help. Through Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), an arm of Mennonite Central Committee, he learned that five-member teams — including skilled labourers — were in demand for reconstruction on the island.
Koop quickly recruited his brother-in-law, Armin Krahn, and a cousin, Arnold Harder. All three are retired farmers, handy with tools.
Garry figured some knowledge of masonry would be an asset, so he contacted Cave Man Stone Products, the first masonry company he found listed in the Yellow Pages. Owner Menno Zacharias spent over an hour answering his questions and finally said, “Why don’t I just come with you?”
The crew was still a person short, so Menno called his brother, Bill Zacharias, who owns Zacharias Masonry Limited.
“They were buying plane tickets that afternoon and I had one hour to make up my mind,” Bill says. “I said to myself, ‘I’ve been in business for 42 years, I can give a week of my time.’”
The five men left on May 23 and arrived in Puerto Rico at 10:30 p.m. An MDS coordinator drove them to their lodgings, a monastery on the outskirts of the capital city, San Juan. It wasn’t until morning that they were able to view the devastation that still existed nearly nine months after the disaster. Many nursing homes and schools — even whole towns — are still without electricity.
“Three point five million people live on the 3,500 square mile island,” Armin Krahn says. “They had cleared away the rubble from cities and the countryside, but there were shells of homes all over the landscape. Especially in the mountainous areas where the poorer people live and homes tend to be poorly built.”
“There’s a lot of vertical real estate there,” Menno Zacharias adds, “and nearly every roof was blown away, replaced with blue plastic sheeting.”
The team was assigned to put a roof on a house high up a mountain. The new roof involved putting on treated plywood covered with a nice-and-waters hield, then metal panels. The men did two roof sin three days.
Koop says Puerto Ricans are very hurricane-aware, but this was the worst storm to hit the island in 80 years. Winds gusted to 210 miles (338 kilometres) per hour.
“If the same winds hit Saskatoon,” he says, “probably 99 per cent of our wood-construction houses would be demolished.”
Armin Krahn says, looking back, there were many answers to prayer in the undertaking. “Just the way things lined up was evidence that God was involved. We farmers were able to mix mortar and carry bricks, but we needed Menno and Bill to put it all together.
“Another miracle was the time frame. MDS likes crews to stay for seven days, but we got a better deal on airline tickets if we stayed for 10 days. We figured we’d sightsee for three days before we started work. Turned out we went to work immediately, replacing the roof on the shell of a house belonging to a lady so traumatized she hadn’t spoken or come out of her bedroom for months. When we left, she was smiling, talking, and giving us hugs.”
Bill Zacharias tells of a pastor and her husband who lived in the mountains and lost everything. They had been working hard to repair their damaged church. “Menno and I able to lay as many concrete blocks in two days as they had in two months,” he says. “That made the whole trip worth it for me.”
All five men are amazed at how hard they were able to work. “We drank water and Gatorade all day,” Bill says, “and were provided with plenty of food prepared by the locals paid by MDS. They cooked as hard as we worked.”
“We were all winners,” Menno adds.
“We definitely gained amazing experience and got to help where there was tremendous need. I was worried about the language barrier and the food, but there wasn’t one bad meal.
“The hospitality was amazing. I will definitely do more good stuff like this in the future.”
Garry Koop observes, “I see the five of us as being puzzle pieces. So many others contributed, but in all of it, God was the Puzzle Putter Together-er.”
Anyone interested in hearing more about the men’s experience is invited to attend the 10 a.m. ‘MDS Sunday’ at Nutana Park Mennonite Church, July 22.
They had cleared away the rubble from cities and the countryside, but there were shells of homes all over the landscape. Especially in the mountainous areas where the poorer people live and homes tend to be poorly built. — Armin Krahn