GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Military dependents and personnel sat and waited in a lobby after arriving at Hickam Air Force Base yesterday after being evacuated from Guam following a supertyphoon.

Guam military evacuees
happy to find safe
passage after
harrowing typhoon

Guam receives $5.2 million in relief
Maui institute helps with Guam's cancer patients

---

By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

Malia Alder never dreamed she would be spending Christmas in Nevada with her family this year.

But that was before supertyphoon Pongsona swept through Guam on Sunday with winds more than 180 mph leaving the tiny Pacific island without water, gas, electricity and with more than 30,000 people homeless.

Alder and her three children were among the 69 active-duty military members and dependents who were evacuated from Guam and who arrived yesterday on a C-5 jet transport at Hickam Air Force Base on their way to the mainland.

Senior Airman Kia Hickson said she was given leave from her job at Andersen Air Force Base to take her 2-year-old daughter, Bria, to temporarily live with her folks in Orlando, Fla.

Hickson said her husband, who also is in the Air Force, was not on Guam when the typhoon hit, and "one of the hardest things I had to do was help my daughter get through it."

"Power lines were down," Hickson said, "and they were whipping all around. It was really scary."

With only seven months left in her Guam assignment, Hickson thought it would be safer to leave her daughter with her parents in Florida.

Alder said it was only yesterday that the water "was declared to be drinkable.

"There is still no electricity. No one knows when school will reopen, and there is no gas."

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM From left, Alejandra Mejia, Janet Cruz, Shanna Wilson and Chris Baker made phone calls to their relatives yesterday from Hickam Air Force Base. They were evacuated from Guam after Supertyphoon Pongsona.

So she and her husband, Capt. Robert Alder, an Air Force dentist, believed it was best for the family to try to catch a "space A" flight from Guam to the mainland. Accompanying Alder on the eight-hour flight from Guam were daughter Samantha, 7; son Luke, 3; and 7-month-old Jill.

First Lt. Chris Anderson, Hickam spokesman, said with more emergency relief supplies flowing into Guam, there are spaces available for military personnel and their families when these transports return to the mainland.

Thirteen C-5 jet transports are scheduled to leave Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco to shuttle equipment and other relief supplies to Guam this weekend, he said.

Alder, who graduated from Radford High School in 1990, said that just before the typhoon hit on Sunday, the sky grew dark. "It was extremely windy."

However, when the eye of the typhoon passed over Anderson Air Force Base, "everything was really calm for at least two hours, and by 4 in the morning, it was over."

"You could hear the winds and the rain, but you couldn't see anything. That's what made it scary."

After the storm, Alder said, "there were giant trees and large palm trees that had been uprooted. The paint had been blown off of one side of our car.

"Our neighbor's storage shed had been blown open, and all of their patio furniture had flown out and hit cars parked nearby."

Hickson said that she bought a portable generator after the last typhoon hit Guam in July. But that did not help this week because there is no gas to run it.

"I'm ready to take a shower," she told reporters, "and get my daughter clean."

Alder said she is looking forward to spending Christmas with her sister in Henderson, Nev., especially since her parents plan to fly in from Germany.

---

BACK TO TOP
|

Guam receives $5.2 million
in relief

---

Associated Press

The U.S. Pacific Fleet is delivering $5.2 million worth of supplies this week to typhoon-ravaged Guam, officials said.

The supplies include power generators, bottled water and medical supplies. The aid is being delivered from Hawaii, California, Australia and Japan, officials said Thursday.

Guam residents are recovering from Supertyphoon Pongsona, which hit the U.S. territory Sunday with 180 mph winds.