Distant typhoon tragedy felt deeply by Kalispell family

A typhoon that hit the Philippines last Saturday and has killed at least 1,000 people struck too close to home for one Kalispell family, with the tragedy still unfolding almost a week later.

“The biggest concern is burying our dead,” Kriss Bridenstine of Kalispell said.

The powerful tropical storm hit Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City on the island of Mindanao in the middle of the night.

Eleven feet of water from flash flooding swept into a family home in Iligan City, flattening the home and killing Trishia Tingson Crabill, the 6-year-old daughter of Thessa Tingson Crabill, who is Bridenstine’s daughter-in-law.

Bridenstine’s 24-year-old son, Jay Crabill, is leaving with his wife, who grew up in Iligan City, for the southern Philippines on Friday to bury her daughter plus a brother and sister who are also among the confirmed dead.

Crabill and his wife plan to stay in the Philippines for two weeks.

Thessa Tingson Crabill’s mother, another brother and her grandparents are among the many people who are still missing almost one week after the typhoon hit.

“Surviving are her two brothers and her father. Everyone else is missing or dead,” Bridenstine said. “They’re hoping to find the rest of the family, but we have a bad feeling they’re probably lost forever.”

The Philippine government continues to focus on retrieving bodies. Most of them are being found at sea after the severe flooding.

“We’ve lost count of the missing,” Benito Ramos, head of the Civil Defense Office, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Authorities in Iligan City said they are preparing mass graves for hundreds of unidentified victims, hoping to prevent the spread of disease.

Bridenstine said she has set up a Trishia Tingson Crabill Benefit Fund with First Interstate Bank in Kalispell. She hopes to raise donations to help her son and his wife travel to the Philippines to bury family members and look for survivors or whatever kind of closure can be found.

“We’ll even take prayers at this point,” Bridenstine said.

“You wake up and read the paper and there’s this horrible world tragedy. You think, ‘Oh, those poor people.’ Then you realize it hits close to home and it’s your family and your tragedy,” she said of the typhoon.

Bridenstine said that travel restrictions imposed on the island of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines because of terrorist activity mean her son, who is in the U.S. military, only will be able to travel as far south as Manila.

“Needless to say, that’s tough on him because he wants to go further to help,” she said.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.