VALLE HERMOSO, MEXICO (August 20, 2007) \u2013 Evangelical Covenant Church missionaries are helping this village prepare for Hurricane Dean, which is expected to hit the area early Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
Jim and Barb Mikrut are short-term missionaries working with the people of this community just south of the tip of Texas. \u201cMany people here live in housing that doesn’t stay dry in a moderate thunderstorm so our prayer is that they would be wise and come to the church (Nueva Vida) and not take the risk of staying home,\u201d says Barb.<\/p>\n
The Mikruts are boarding their home today and getting as many items off the floor as possible. \u201cOur plan for Wednesday is to join our friends pastor Javier and his wife, Alicia, at their home and wait out the storm together in prayer,\u201d Barb says.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir church is only a block from their house and has been offered as a place of refuge for anyone in need. Chances are good that we will all be together at the church, which is good because it has a cement roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
The building can seat roughly 600 to 700 people, Barb says. \u201cTheir pews are not permanently attached to the floor so they can be moved to make room for people to sleep on the floor as well as on the pews.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of (4 p.m.), the projected path may take the storm just south of us,\u201d Barb says. \u201cWe continue to keep watch as to inform our neighbors and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents have suffered through hurricanes in the past. A storm two years ago bent the cell tower in half,\u201d Barb says. \u201cThey remember that storm all too well and know to be calm, pray, and not to panic. We have not witnessed any sense of fear in the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forecasters have said Dean could be a Category 5 hurricane by the time it strikes the Yucatan Penninsula sometime this evening. Such hurricanes are the most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the standard measurement for hurricanes, and can have sustained winds of 155mph or more.<\/p>\n
Dean, currently packing winds up to 150 mph, already has left heavy damage in its wake, including Jamaica and Haiti.<\/p>\n