MAF and the Mozambique Flood
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Sunday March 5^th 2000 9:32 PM

Fran Derocher This is a picture of Fran Derocher, a pilot with the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) with his Cessna 206 aircraft. This picture was taken at the Airport in Maseru where the MAF keep their airplanes after Fran returned from Mozambique. In the background, you can see the barracks of the SADC troops still quartered in Lesotho. Click on the picture for an expanded view

I'm sure you are all aware of the tragic flooding in Mozambique. Mozambique is South Africa's neighbor to the north on the Indian Ocean. Although, Mozambique was not the only country suffering under torrential rains and flooding, it was, by far, the hardest hit. This is about a MAF pilot and his service during the flood. As I have mentioned before the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), is a missionary organization made up of pilots and airplane mechanics supporting medical teams and other agencies in remote areas.

Fran Derocher is a MAF pilot assigned to Lesotho. He, his wife, Lori, and their 3 children live near us in Maseru. When disaster struck in Mozambique, he and other MAF staff went to Mozambique to help out. Below is an email which he sent to Lori when he had a bit of free time.

These MAF pilots do a lot of serious flying. There is no co-pilot to whom you can pass control for a while, and weather conditions can play real havoc when flying these small planes. It's a day in day out job which can sometimes have long hours. At times it can be both demanding and dangerous. Last year, the MAF group lost a friend when his plane crashed in the Lesotho mountains soon after takeoff.

Lori

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Just got done with a hot bath... got home early today 5:30 pm. You know- it being Sunday and all! If I had landed any earlier I would have had another flight. I am actually getting into the groove of the sched now. The first few days I was dragging due to the heat and humidity, long hours etc. I feel pretty good right now. The problem with coming home so late is you then have to go out to eat (who wants to do dishes) and that takes until around 9pm or so. In my normal life I'm wiped out by then- can't seem to find the energy to do phone calls or emails... so people wonder why he don't wrat no moe. You can copy this to other folks as you desire. I will try to fill you in on just what we be doing.

Air Serve has received a big grant to provide logistic support (transport mainly) for NGO groups and others. There were two big needs at first. The main thrust was search and rescue and this involved any and all helicopters around. Even yesterday, one of the Air Serve (contracted out) helicopters found a group of 60 people in the trees and transported them to dry ground. Many people climbed trees and eventually built temporary "homes" awaiting help or lower water levels. Two days ago I had to fly out an emergency medical team 50 minutes by 206 from Maputo to help with some burn victims. Their tree house had caught on fire and they had no where to go. The story reported an old guy had been burned over 80% of his body. The helicopters have also been supporting a team that came out with rubber boats to pick up anyone they could find.

The second thrust was doing survey flights. People knew from TV pictures that there was a great flood... but where could you stage rescue teams, food delivery points, medical camps etc. Dave and I have both done a number of survey type flights. Yesterday I flew a group from the local Christian group of Mozambique to help pinpoint GPS coordinates of places near the worst areas that could be used for the above work.

Mixed in with the above was the need for fuel for those boats, food for the rescue workers, transport for workers, media folks looking for some good footage- you get the picture. (Good joke huh?) Today I flew out a group with World Vision to survey the worst of the damage and be dropped off near the flood. On board were cameramen from Holland and Australia. I think they were used to flying in bigger airplanes. It was my first real close look at some of the area. If you can imagine where you used to live and draw out an area 20 miles by 20 miles and think of all the property and neighbors around... and then cover the whole area with water to above roof top level- that is what it looked like. I saw yesterday a train bridge across the flooded river, the middle of the cement structure was gone but the rails were still connected and hanging over air for about 100 feet. Strange sight.

It appears now that the emphasis is shifting to getting food, clean water and medical aid to places that need it. In the Air Serv hangar are some portable water purifying units brought in by the Southern Baptists. I think they are going out tomorrow to set them up. Our maf planes have been useful up to now, but as airstrips dry out the bigger aircraft (like a twin otter) can haul a bunch more than we can at one time. The water levels are dropping and you can see more land everyday. That is a good thing, but with the destruction of the road system due to the massive flood waters, air transport will be vital for the near future.

I talked to one man who has lived here for a long time and he said that in one of the areas (normally affected by flood waters) the worse they had ever experienced was water 2 meters high (6 feet approx.) This flood was up to 7 meters in places! The measuring sticks placed by the government agency to track flood levels had a mark near the top which was considered to be indicative of the worse level imaginable... the measuring sticks along the river were completely covered with water! One of the things that has made an impression on me is the smell as you fly over the flooded area. There is a strong odor of decay. I am sure there have been thousands of animals and sadly many people lost due to the rapid rise of the water.

The number of aircraft operating in the area is staggering. I feel for the local air controllers who have been overloaded and still doing a good job. I was waiting for takeoff one time and the tower received 6 calls from different aircraft in a 30 second period. I asked a man at one of the airports we are flying to how many landings they had a year normally... he said about 120 per year. He said the last two weeks they have had 137 landings! As an American, it was nice to see one of the US Air Forces C5A large transport aircraft on the ramp unloading supplies to help the flood victims. There are aircraft coming in from around the world dropping supplies to help out. When I look around I feel like a guppy in a shark tank taxing around in a Cessna 206. You know what though, those big guys can't get to the places I can and help meet the needs in those specific regions. I hope you can see how important our "little" Cessna 206 is in this place. Thanks for allowing me to be here and give a helping hand or wing in this case, to a nation devastated by this flood. Thanks for praying and please continue to ask for safety in the air and on the ground as so many seek to show the love of Christ in practical ways. I count it a tremendous privelege to be able to be here doing what we are doing. You have been a part of making this happen, thanks a million times over.

I am using someone elses computer and don't have much time to answer emails... but if you have any specific questions maybe you can send them and I can get to them asap.

Blessings,

Fran

I would like to thank Fran and Lori for allowing this personal message to be made public on our website so that you can have a better idea of the personal aspects of both the tradgedy in Mozambique and life as a MAF missionary

pz

updated 3/16/2000
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