A voice of hope continues to blanket the city of Bukavu and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo after a pair of earthquakes rocked the region last Sunday killing at least 46 people, including 10 who were attending church services.
Though the quake left hundreds injured and thousands homeless in the DRC as well as neighbouring Rwanda, Radio Kahuzi, a partner station of the Christian radio ministry HCJB Global Voice in Bukavu, suffered only minor damage.
Richard McDonald, a missionary who serves at Radio Kahuzi with his wife Kathy, was making a last-minute check of the radio equipment, preparing to leave for church, when the category-6.0 quake struck at 9:30am local time.
"The very heavy rack supporting the transmitters began rocking violently from side to side," McDonald explained. "I tried to wrestle it to a stop and switched off the power, waiting for just less than a minute for the quake to finish.
"Danny Magadju, our journalist in training, powered down the studio and we exited for safety. No equipment was damaged, so we cautiously went back on the air," McDonald explained. Since then the broadcasts have been interrupted only occasionally by brief power outages.
McDonald added that engineers are keeping a close eye on two nearby hydroelectric dams that already had cracks and may have suffered further damage in the temblors. "But we are on the air as normal thus far," he said.
Radio Kahuzi received numerous calls from listeners, asking about the quakes and the status of two nearby volcanoes which may be coming back to life after years of inactivity. The epicentre of the first quake was 30 miles northwest of Bukavu at Mount Kahuzi, after which the station is named.
