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The relief workers will coordinate aid deliveries and assess needs from the storm, which made landfall overnight in the central Philippines with torrential rains and hurricane-force winds.
Even before the monstrous typhoon struck, AmeriCares had pre-positioned emergency medicines and supplies to help families displaced by the record-breaking storm. An emergency shipment is underway with enough medical aid, including antibiotics, wound care supplies and pain relievers, for 20,000 survivors. AmeriCares is also providing emergency funding that will allow partner organizations in the Philippines to purchase and distribute critical relief supplies in the hardest-hit areas.
“Power outages have hindered communications in the most devastated areas and it may be days, even weeks, before we know the full extent of the damage,” said Garrett Ingoglia, AmeriCares vice president of emergency response. “Having a team on the ground assessing the needs is the quickest way to speed relief to survivors.”
Nearly 1 million people in Haiyan’s path were ordered to evacuate as the typhoon, known in the Philippines as Yolanda, barreled forward with wind gusts of up to 200 mph. Officials warned more than 12 million Filipinos were at risk, including thousands of families in Bohol province still homeless after last month’s deadly earthquake.
Typhoon Haiyan is now headed toward Vietnam, where the weakened but still powerful storm is expected to make landfall on Sunday or Monday.
Stamford-based AmeriCares has been aiding survivors of natural disasters, political conflict and extreme poverty around the world for more than 30 years. To donate to AmeriCares International Disaster Relief Fund go to americares.org/philippines
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