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| Vol. 23, No. 4 |
| March 1, 2001 |
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Chaplain Helps El Salvador Earthquake Victims By JOHN MARTINEZ Harris County Hospital District Sandy Williams just sat down for lunch with friends when everything around him began to shake. Frightened, the group quickly spilled out into the streets of Santa Rosa de Lima, a small community spared the devastation of a mid-January earthquake that rocked El Salvador. Initial reports of the Jan. 13 quake, later classified a magnitude 7.6 on the Richter scale, were not good. The quake set off a massive landslide that buried much of the neighboring community of Santa Tecla, the quake's epicenter, killing more than 700 people and leaving thousands homeless.
"I don't think we realized how severe it really was," Chaplain Williams remembered. "It only lasted a few seconds." The part-time chaplain and six-year employee at Harris County Hospital District's Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital was overcome by emotion after hearing that only a few miles away, the small town of Santa Tecla lay in ruin. Chaplain Williams, who is fluent in Spanish, called his chance visit to El Salvador "one of faith." He and two fellow church members were there on a nine-day missionary trip. "There was a lot of fear and uncertainty," he said. "Everyone was so scared." Complicating things were the hundreds of after-shocks that plagued the area days after the first quake. Aside from some cracked buildings and broken windows, his town was spared heavy damage. The quake, understandably, did rattle nerves and everyone's sense of safety, he said. One of his biggest concerns was letting his family and friends in Houston know that he was okay. It took awhile since telephone and utility services were temporarily shut down. Once he succeeded, he turned his attention to the residents. "Many needed comfort and someone to pray with them," he said. "I felt a calling to minister to them as I do to the patients and staff at LBJ Hospital." For the next few days, he read scripture and helped many cope with the tragedy. Some of the residents had family and friends that were directly involved in the quake's epicenter. "Going through an event like this reminds you that life is so short," he said. "It made me aware of the uncertainty of life and the importance of God in one's life."
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/03_01_01/page_05.html |
