View from Honolulu
Enormous Changes At The Last Minute
A Typhoon Can Change Everything In A Very Short Time—And Leave Years Of Recovery In Its Wake
As we were starting into production for this issue, I sent an email to contributing editor Giff Johnson, who was covering an environmental conference in the Cook Islands. In the subject line of the email I wrote “Enormous changes at the last minute.” It’s actually the title of a Grace Paley novel, but it describes what happened to this issue, which was originally meant to focus on regional health issues.
Typhoon Chata‘an hit Chuuk and Guam, but it also hit Pacific Magazine. We lost contact with some of our Guam and Saipan advertisers and contributors. Then we had to bump the health cover story and some other features to devote space to the storms.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
I’ve been through three typhoons in the Pacific myself. I know the physical, financial and even psychological damage these powerful storms leave on the ground after they’ve blown out to sea. It’s devastating to see your habitual landscape completely trashed.
The papaya trees go down first, so in the initial days after a storm, everyone eats papaya and tries to use up what’s been in the freezer. It’s disorienting to be in the heat without an electric fan. There’s no ice. There’s no clean water. There’s no television.
But these depressing inconveniences are nothing compared to the loss of life suffered by the people of Chuuk. Usually a storm will kill one or two people at the most. But as we go to press, Chuuk is mourning the loss of 47 of its citizens. Guam, already suffering from a deflated economy before Chata‘an, now looks into an even bleaker economic future. Getting the storm story was not easy. Phone lines were down. Email was not getting through. I finally found a photo of Chuuk storm damage at the AP offices in New York, of all places. It’s on our cover.
In Honolulu, Federated States of Micronesia Senior Consul Danny Rescue helped all he could. And I finally got through on satellite phone to FEMA personnel in Guam.
Health did not completely disappear from this issue. Giff Johnson did a story on Hemos George, a Marshallese carpenter who learned to make artificial limbs for the country’s diabetic amputees. There’s also a short memorial piece on page 14 for Arnold Baptiste Sr., who pioneered new ways of getting acute care to Pacific Islanders.
Enormous changes. Yet the inconvenience of having to reconfigure a magazine is nothing compared to the grief in Chuuk and the uncertainties ahead for Guam.
There is nothing like the frightening experience of living through a strong typhoon. The winds create a sound that I can only describe as being like having a Boeing 747 just about to land right where you are huddled with neighbors and family. There is nothing as frightening as hearing that sound and seeing the roof of your house start to lift and blow away, piece by piece. The rains soak everything—books, clothing, furniture.
This acute fright goes away as the storm passes. But then begins the long, chronic period of loss, grieving and the hard physical work of digging out and living daily life at it’s most basic. For our readers, advertisers and friends on Guam and Chuuk, we wish you the strength and hope you’ll need over the next few months.
