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Stamford's AmeriCares Prepares To Help After Powerful Cyclone Hits Fiji

STAMFORD, Conn. – Stamford-based AmeriCares has relief workers on stand-by who are ready to assist in the recovery efforts after Cyclone Winston in Fiji. 

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, speaks at an event Friday morning at AmeriCares, where he thanked the organization for its response to the Nepal earthquake. Al left is Americares President Michael J. Nyenhuis and Garrett Ingoglia, center.

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, speaks at an event Friday morning at AmeriCares, where he thanked the organization for its response to the Nepal earthquake. Al left is Americares President Michael J. Nyenhuis and Garrett Ingoglia, center.

Photo Credit: Frank MacEachern

The storm, the most powerful to ever to hit Fiji, made landfall on the archipelago nation’s most populous island Saturday evening local time, knocking out electricity and damaging homes. The government has declared a state of natural disaster for 30 days in the nation home to about 900,000 people.

“We still don’t know the full extent of the damage,” said Garrett Ingoglia, vice president of emergency response at AmeriCares. “AmeriCares is prepared to deploy relief workers and provide medicines and relief supplies if international assistance is needed.”

AmeriCares supports health care in Fiji by providing medicine and medical supplies to U.S.-based medical personnel traveling there to provide primary care and surgeries for patients in desperate need.

It stocks emergency medicines and relief supplies in its warehouses in the U.S., Europe and India that can be delivered quickly in times of crisis. The global health and emergency response organization has been aiding survivors of natural disasters, political conflict and extreme poverty around the world for more than 30 years.

To make a donation to AmeriCares International Disaster Relief Fund, go to www.americares.org/cyclone.

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