HURRICANE BERYL

HURRICANE BERYL...became the first Category 4 storm to form in the month of June in the Atlantic ocean, and it strengthened in the shortest amount of time on record. On Monday night, it became the earliest Category 5 storm seen in the Atlantic Ocean. The storm hit the Cancun Mexico Mission as a category 3 hurricane early Friday with winds of up to 111 miles per hour. It flattened trees and lampposts and ripped off roof tiles, according to Mexico's civil protection authority and electricity was lost in some municipalities. 

Every July we have had a personal challenge in our mission and unfortunately this July has been no different as we have been preparing for our first Hurricane while on our mission.  Luckily with hurricanes you have some time to prepare. On Sunday, June 30, President received a phone call from the Area Mexico Security team telling us to prepare our mission for hurricane beryl that was heading straight for us and would hit early Friday morning July 5. We received direction regularly from the church on things we should do. 

When we arrived to the mission 2 years ago there was no emergency plan in place so Karen took a few weeks and developed a plan that all missionaries now have in their home. This includes having an emergency supply kit with 3 days of food and water, flashlights, extra batteries and they were to identify clothing to take. But with having missionaries coming to Cancun for this hurricane, for a longer period of time and not knowing if and how long we would be without food and water they were to get a 5 day supply for this hurricane.

Back to receiving information from the church, On Monday President received another call from the church and we were told we needed to evacuate our missionaries from our Chetumal and Ramas zones (our furthest areas in the mission) as the hurricane was projected to hit there. We pulled all our missionaries up to Cancun on Tuesday. On Wednesday we were encouraged to pull all our missionaries from our Playa zone to Cancun as the hurricane had turned a little and now projected to hit between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen. We now had most of our missionaries in Cancun and only 18 missionaries were in the state of Yucatan, in our Valladolid and Tizimin Zones. We once again adjusted our plan and now had 4-12 missionaries in other missionaries' homes in the 3 Cancun Zones. Our Valladolid and Tizimin missionaries were all together ~ the Hermanas in 1 home and the Elders in two other homes, again no missionaries were alone. 

We had also planned to evacuate to what we were told were 2 of the only churches safe buildings here in Cancun in the event of a evacuation. On Thursday July 4, (we almost went the whole day without realizing it was the 4^th of July back home. We told our kids we had planned our own fireworks that would take place a little later 😬) late afternoon we were told that these buildings were not safe and now we had no where for our missionaries to evacuate to, but the hurricane had once again shifted a little and now would hit between Playa and Tulum. Cancun would still get hit bad because we were on the right side of the eye of the storm and that is the worst side. I was very overwhelmed as we were doing all we could to keep our missionaries safe, but we were truly blessed and watched over in all our preparations for this hurricane!

As of 4pm on Thursday all missionaries were safe in their homes and were to stay there until they heard from us that it was safe to leave. By late Thursday evening we were informed to brace for a category 3 hurricane! Needless to say President and I did NOT sleep that night as we were worried for our missionaries.

Every night as we were preparing, we had a mission wide zoom call with our missionaries going over our emergency plan and engraining this in their heads! They knew the plan well and knew the rules before this, but its always better to over communicate and our missionaries were as prepared as they could be. At 6:00pm on Thursday evening we held our last zoom call before the hurricane hit and President left a blessing on the mission. It was a wonderful, spiritual zoom call and I knew once again that the Lord was watching over us and we and our missionaries were protected.

The hurricane hit early Friday morning and by 8:00am we had heard from all our missionaries that everyone was safe and well. What a relief! Cancun was still in a Red Maximum Danger Alert all day Friday so all missionaries were to stay inside until they heard from us that it was safe. We had some areas without electricity, but by 1:00pm missionaries were able to call home to reassure parents they were safe. Saturday morning we were able to return back to normal and all missionaries returned to their areas and homes.  We survived the hurricane with very minimal damage! We are so grateful to family and friends who prayed for us ~ those prayers were felt and answered!

To keep our parents updated we sent emails and posted on social media. We have a mission account on Facebook and Instagram and a missionary mom account on Facebook. Here are the post to inform Parents of the Hurricane and plans.

Post #1: To our missionary parents, As we have been preparing and anticipating hurricane Beryl heading towards our mission we wanted to give you an update. (You should have all received an email also)We've been in continuous contact with the church and ALL missionaries have been moved to areas deemed safe. We have an emergency plan in place and have reviewed this plan numerous times with our missionaries. Our missionaries safety is our number one concern and we are doing everything possible to keep them safe! We will do our best to keep you updated but please understand that communication may not be available for a time. We know the Lord is watching over us as we have witnessed this many times in our preparation.Thank you for your love and prayers. We love our missionaries and are grateful to be serving with them!

Post #2: To our Missionary Parents, update on hurricane Beryl. As of 4:00pm today ALL our missionaries are safe and secure in their homes! We have an emergency plan in place they are all to follow and we will be in communication with them. We will do our best to update you tomorrow after the storm hits but again we may loose communication for a time. We love our missionaries and we KNOW the Lord is watching over all of us!

Post #3: To our missionary parents, We are very grateful to report that ALL missionaries in the Mexico Cancun Mission are accounted for, safe and well! We truly were blessed and watched over as we prepared for and are going through this hurricane.

We have instructed missionaries to stay inside their homes today and to keep their phones turned off (only 1 phone is on in a house to communicate with us) as some areas are without power. They will contact you when the electricity issues are resolved. Thank you for your love and prayers!

We love our missionaries and their families!

Love, Presidente y Hermana Anderson