Sengthavy rides through the storm  
By Vanhlee Lattana, World Vision Laos Communications

Mrs. Keo and the children sharing their harrowing experience before the rescue.  Photo by World Vision Laos.

Sengthavy, eight, was playing and looking for insects in their backyard when suddenly water started rising very quickly. “It was very scary. My mother immediately hauled upstairs”, he recalls. 

Their house was swept away by the flood until a motor-powered boat pass by, gave chase towards the floating house, and rescued the family. Mrs. Keo, Sengthavy’s mother was frantic and began shouting for help as soon as water started to rise, and was close to panicking when their house began flowing along with the strong currents.

Mrs. Keo says, “My husband was downstairs braving the flood trying to move away logs carried by the current from hitting our house. But it was to no avail. Our house was eventually swept away”. All of the family members were inside the house, including her 7-month old niece who seemed to have sensed the danger and cried very loudly throughout the ordeal.

She adds, “I thought we would all die. I was so scared for my children.” The rescuers brought them safely to a school that served as evacuation camp for all the typhoon survivors.

Sengthavy got sick after the harrowing experience – having been soaked wet and exposed to the various diseases within the camp. The Keo family was just one of the many families who lost their houses, and most of their meager properties, to Ketsana in Dong Ngai village, Sepone district.

 “I thought our house was already strong enough to withstand anything. I was wrong,” Mrs. Keo shares in retrospect. A total of 153 families from their village sebsequently received World Vision relief packs comprising food, water, candles, lighters and water purification tablets.

Mr. Tamna, a village chief, truly appreciates World Vision Laos’ concern for his constituents. In total, 25 villages with 2,755 families, were provided relief assistance shortly after the catastrophe.

The World Vision Laos relief team said most of the team members have no relief work experience but rose to the challenge and worked hard to provide timely aid to their countrymen in dire need. Capacity building on disaster-preparedness has now been recognised as priority after going through the relief response.