{"id":8390,"date":"2004-12-27T18:42:53","date_gmt":"2004-12-27T23:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=8390"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:28:47","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:28:47","slug":"4025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2004\/12\/27\/4025\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwights Evacuated Following Massive Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Don Meyer<\/p>\n<div>PHI PHI ISLAND, THAILAND (December 27, 2004)\u00a0 &#8211; Evangelical Covenant Church\u00a0 missionaries Don and Lillian Dwight and their five children have been\u00a0 safely evacuated following tsunamis that swept across the Indian Ocean\u00a0 from Thailand to Somalia Monday morning, killing at least 23,000 people.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div>The giant waves &#8211; caused by the most powerful earthquake on Earth in 40\u00a0 years &#8211; also left thousands injured and missing as well as hundreds of\u00a0 thousands homeless in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand,\u00a0 according to reports from CNN News.<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;The Dwights arrived on Phi Phi Island Christmas morning,&#8221; according to\u00a0 China country coordinators Dave and Judy Dolan. &#8220;They were disappointed\u00a0 that the bungalow they had been given was up on the hill rather than on\u00a0 the beach. Sunday morning they decided not to go to the beach early, but\u00a0 instead went to a restaurant. Twenty minutes later after they returned\u00a0 to their bungalow, the restaurant was completely destroyed by the\u00a0 tsunami. So the fact that their accommodations were on the hill . . .\u00a0 and the fact that they decided to go to breakfast early rather than go\u00a0 to the beach all contributed to their being alive today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>The Dwight family were evacuated to Phuket and hope to catch a flight to\u00a0 Bangkok for a scheduled return flight to Taiwan December 31.<\/p>\n<div>Early reports were sketchy, but another Covenanter, Tom Halgren, is\u00a0 reportedly safe in Sri Lanka, where he was working on a printing\u00a0 project. In an email message to friends, Halgren says he was on the west\u00a0 side of the island &#8211; it was the south and east that was hit by the big\u00a0 tidal waves. &#8220;No Warning!&#8221; he writes. &#8220;Nothing! A thirty-foot-high wave\u00a0 hit and destroyed everything in its path. I was at the beach when it hit\u00a0 the Negombo area about 1 p.m. The water went way out &#8211; more than the\u00a0 tide &#8211; and so we walked out a way &#8211; dumb thing to do! It came back in a\u00a0 surge and we ran for the beach, then the sunbathing area, then the\u00a0 veranda and we were caught in water up to our waist. Got bounced around,\u00a0 but am okay!&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>The magnitude 9.0 quake struck about 7 a.m. Sunday and was centered\u00a0 about 100 miles off the coast of Indonesia&#8217;s Sumatra island at a depth\u00a0 of about 6.2 miles, CNN reports. It was the strongest earthquake on\u00a0 Earth since 1964 and tied a 1952 quake in Kamchatka, Russia, as the\u00a0 fourth strongest since such measurements began in 1899.<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;Judy and I will be leaving on Thursday to spend a few days with the\u00a0 Dwights after they return to Taiwan,&#8221; David Dolan writes. &#8220;Pray that the\u00a0 Lord will allow us to be an encouragement and comfort to them in the\u00a0 aftermath of this traumatic experience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>More information will be posted to this Covenant online news report as\u00a0 it becomes available.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=8390&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Don Meyer PHI PHI ISLAND, THAILAND (December 27, 2004)\u00a0 &#8211; Evangelical Covenant Church\u00a0 missionaries Don and Lillian Dwight and their five children have been\u00a0 safely evacuated following tsunamis that swept across the Indian Ocean\u00a0 from Thailand to Somalia Monday morning, killing at least 23,000 people. Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dwights Evacuated Following Massive Storm - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2004\/12\/27\/4025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dwights Evacuated Following Massive Storm - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Don Meyer PHI PHI ISLAND, THAILAND (December 27, 2004)\u00a0 &#8211; Evangelical Covenant Church\u00a0 missionaries Don and Lillian Dwight and their five children have been\u00a0 safely evacuated following tsunamis that swept across the Indian Ocean\u00a0 from Thailand to Somalia Monday morning, killing at least 23,000 people. 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