Council president still reeling from earthquake

By PETER WARI
AFTER losing two of his daughters in the 7.5 magnitude earthquake early this year, Upper Mendi LLG president Solomon Timbol is still feeling the pain watching his home slowly falling apart in the aftershocks. The very house where two of his daughters Blesinah and Gloria, and two others, Grace Dopo and Annmarie Kowi; daughters of Ialibu Basin LLG president Robert Dopo and Southern Highlands education advisor Pat Kowi died when stones from a wall smashed into the house, is slowly being damaged in the continuing aftershocks.
“I have never gone to the house or set foot near it after the four children were killed. It breaks my heart seeing the house,” Timbol told The National in a recent interview.
Timbol, a young energetic man that struggled from almost nothing to be a local businessman and later the LLG president, is naturally talkative.
That was until the Feb 26 mega quake that destroyed homes, gardens and other property and killed dozens including his daughters.
People call him ‘Makeuse Mangi’ because of the hard work he did to be a successful businessman. Youths call him multi-purpose man because when it comes to talk as a leader, he speaks with confidence and is at the forefront to make sure there is peace in his LLG.
When it comes to interacting with youths, he fits into their shoes and mingles with them. But his enthusiasm and love for life has evidently faded after the disaster and he is now traumatised and living with a broken heart. Fear could be clearly seen in his eyes. He doesn’t talk much now. Few meters away from his damaged house stands his trade store, a mini supermarket and hardware shop. Work was underway to extend the business when the Feb 26 disaster struck. The incomplete building and those nearby are now in a disaster in waiting as sooner or later the whole area would collapse if a big earthquake occurs again.
“I started from scraps and I do not want to see my whole property damaged in a landslip if the aftershocks continue,” Timbol said.
He said he was one of the badly affected people that needed immediate help so that he could rebuild his life.
He said he understood the financial problems the country was encountering at the moment and appealed to the National Disaster Office to help him and some of the people who were feeling the same pain like him.
“The only time you forget as if nothing happened is when you fall asleep and when you wake up, the same old feeling is there.
“That’s why I try not to go near the house where the four children died, it really breaks my heart,” Timbol said with tears in his eyes.
Timbol is supporting calls for an independent investigation into the sudden earthquake that killed dozens of people, causing injuries and destroying millions of kina worth of properties.
“We cannot continue to say it was because of the movement of the tectonic plates, we want real proof and evidence,” he said.
Timbol is from Koen village in the Mendi-Munihu district. The district also lost a family in a landslip after the earthquake.
Father Peter Hungi, mother Marry Louis and their daughters Jerolyne, eight, and Senis, eight months, were buried alive in the landslip. Their bodies were retrieved after a month. The only survivor in the family is first born daughter Jerrina Peter.
Where possible those who have survived deadly disasters and the immediate family members of those who perished need special attention and the Government has to consider prioritising them in any relief assistance, Timbol said.