Cyclone

Saturday we had a CAT 2 Cyclone over Sri Lanka that we watched all day.  It was supposed to hit Chennai Saturday night.
I was in Chennai at the Mitchell's so we were watching it close.  It rained very hard but the wind was the element to watch.  On Sunday morning Teresa's driver said there were trees down in the city and it wasn't safe to go to church.  He really didn't want to drive in the storm so we stayed at their house and had a home evening.
Maran called me from Rising Star and asked about bringing the kids in for church.  We decided it was best not to.  It wasn't blowing so bad at RSO (Rising Star Outreach) but it was in Chennai where church is held.  It's a 2 hour drive one way to get there.  We leave at 7:30 AM - arrive at 9:30 for the start of church.  Then eat in the bus and arrive back at RSO by 3:30 or 4:00.  It's an all day event.
A few minutes later I got a call from Cala.  She thought it wasn't that bad and Maran, being Hindu didn't want to send the kids being Christian.  I told her I was the one who made the decision because I couldn't take the chance that anything would happen to the kids if they got stranded in the bus somewhere with a tree across the road or something else from the storm.  She was pretty firm about going into town but I said no. 
The storm was strong thru Monday morning but never grew into anything terrible.  The government cancelled school for the whole district on Monday.  Things here are fine.  There are 4 trees down on campus.  One right in front of the volunteer house, one by the hostel and 2 behind the well next to the volunteer house.  Maran has a crew cutting them into pieces so they can be hauled off and then will replant small ones.  It turned out to be a really good storm.  Thirty six people died and 12 are still missing.  There were lots of trees down in Chennai.