Orien Family News

Fire and Water. Both can be beneficial and both can be destructive. The beneficial aspects are life giving and the destructive aspects and devastating. Yesterday we got to see up close and personal the destructive aspect of fire. It was so disheartening and sad to see what it did to our beloved chapel. Today we got to see the destructive nature of water and what it did to our beloved temple next door.

This afternoon while attending a game at the state basketball tournament I received an alarming telephone call from President Cox, president of the Anchorage Alaska Temple. He and I have been in touch frequently today regarding the message on the temple telephone system as we try to keep it current with what is happening regarding the operation of the temple since the fire at the chapel next door. In the phone call he indicated that he and Sister Cox had just arrived at the temple to finish up some laundry and found water pouring out the doors of the temple. What a shock that was!

I hurried to the temple and found several fire trucks and municipal pump trucks, various other service vehicles and lots of people working hard to remove 5-6 feet of water that had filled the bottom floor of the temple. The peaceful, reverent and holy atmosphere that usually greets me as I enter the doors was not there today. I waded through 6 or so inches of water to the steps inside that go up to the main floor of the temple. People were scurrying everywhere with hoses, machines, cords, etc. as they worked to remove the water. President Novakovich, who is well over 6 feet tall, said he had waded in water past his waist and that was after the water had receeded. He said it was difficult to walk and sort of like trying to go up a fast flowing river as it was flowing so fast.

Apparently a six inch water main line coming into the temple had burst it’s cap due to extremely high pressure probably caused by all the water used to fight the fire yesterday. I’m not sure how it all works, but it is obviously all related to yesterday’s events. Anyway, water burst the cap with such extreme pressure it blew a large trunk of tools through a wall and sent water gushing through the bottom floor of the temple and flowing out the front door.

I spent the rest of the afternoon until early evening making telephone calls cancelling appointments to come to the temple and sometimes reversing arrangement we had just made the day before. In making all these phone calls it reminded me how many people are involved in the day to day operation of the temple. Lots!

We aren’t sure what will happen next week with regard to the operation of the temple and how long it will take to clean up and repair the damage. We are due to close on Friday anyway for a two week maintenence so perhaps it will be a three week closure. I hope that is all it takes to get the temple operational again. And I wish that was all it was going to take to have our chapel operational. It will be a year or more before that happens. We are all wondering what we will do in the meantime. Plans are being formulated by our leaders to continue on with having our meetings and worship services and we’ll just all pitch in and make it happen despite hardships and inconvenience.

It certainly gives me pause to think about the blessing it is to have a wonderful place to meet and worship…one I won’t take for granted after this. I think about other blessings I have and hope I don’t have to lose them in order to really appreciate them.