Gabi was all set to celebrate her birthday party on Saturday morning, when we had to frantically call those who were planning to come and tell them to stay away from the area since the road had been destroyed.
Since we had all the decorations already, and we were sitting around the house waiting for news, we decided to have a low-key party to eat the cake that had been made the night before and to allow Gabi to open her presents. In addition to the great cake, Tracy had also found a cute horse-balloon that looked like it was walking.
Members of our neighborhood kept gathering every two hours or so to pass on updates. By about 1 pm, we realized that the access around the landslide had been closed due to safety concerns. There was another walking exit, but it was apparently quite steep and not recommended for children or the elderly.
It was surprising how difficult it was to get accurate information due to the fast changing situation. With no electricity or land-lines, we were very grateful for cell phones, but realized even relatives in the States probably had better information that we did.
At three o'clock we realized we should try and get out - that the government was recommending an evacuation; without electricity and with water running low, it was time to move. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the exit point, those in charge had closed it, stating that they were bringing relief supplies in, and that there was only room for one-way traffic on the steep jungle trail.
In the meantime, it started to pour, certainly making a treacherous situation even worse -- especially at the incident site.
A little after 4:30 we got a text message from a neighbor saying that the trail had been opened, and we quickly set out. It was very wet and Gabi quickly soured on hiking through a mud-slogged trail. Rania was in a backpack, and Reeve was hiking with some neighbors, the McCutcheons. The trail then got quite steep, but there were steps and LOTS of people on hand to help. After getting to the top (about 10-15 minutes only), there were lots of ambulances and relief personnel available to help, and they gave us ride to the Giant, the supermarket in our area. A few minutes later, we all piled into Doug's dad's car, and we had officially been evacuated.
We arrived at Doug's parents house, and benefited by the generosity of some neighbors to get some spare clothes for kids and for ourselves. We were exhausted, but relieved to be safe.
Hopefully this was the last time we'll ever have to utter the words, "Party canceled due to landslide."
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