...and after...
By now, I'm sure you all have heard about the horrific devastation that
had struck the Philippines when Hurricane Haiyan, or Typhoon Yolanda as
it was known to the natives, made landfall. Haiyan packed winds of 200
mph and gusts up to 235 mph, with Tacloban City, shown above, in the
epicenter. On top of high winds and tsunami-like waves reaching 20 feet
high, those in Tacloban City couldn't have possibly have prepared
themselves for what's been called the most powerful storm on record.
I've read heartbreaking accounts of 30 members of one family gone
missing and people robbing the dead of food and actually stepping on
corpses to that end. Looting is rampant and, typically, the Philippine
government, instead of concentrating solely on relief, rescue and
recovery efforts, is considering declaring Martial Law to stop looting.
It's been estimated 10,000 have died in Tacloban City alone and the
death toll is expected to rise by as much as another 5,000.
I'm not going to editorialize and blame global warming for this
(although it's obvious burning fossil fuels is to blame) or to rehash
Hurricane Katrina from eight years ago by citing parallels (although
I've found all too many). In the wake of a tragedy such as this, human
nature is the same all over and those poor people on the island of Cebu
are forced to do things they never dreamed of doing as had the people of
the 9th ward in New Orleans. And, sadly, government response is also
the same the world over.
I've seen pictures of Filipino children walking along dirt roads,
paying no heed to the bodies that are stacked up like cord wood because,
after just three days in, the sight of rotting corpses is already so
common. Old people lie dead and decaying on concrete steps while the
living pass by them in the constant search for food and potable water.
The Filipino authorities have said that, even though Tacloban City had a
population of just 220,000, up to 4.3 million Filipinos out of the
island nation of 96 million have been directly or indirectly affected.
The British government has pledged 6 million pounds and our own
government has deployed 90 Marines and sailors to the Philippines, a
woefully pitiful number, in my opinion.
To help simplify things, Paypal has set up a special link
on its site
where you can donate to any number of charities involved in the relief
effort to help the people of the Philippines (if it doesn't appear, keep
refreshing the page). I'd sent the American Red Cross a small donation
and I would please ask you to consider doing the same. Because, as
Katrina and Irene and so many other super storms have proven of late,
next year it could be our turn. What happened on Cebu over the weekend
wasn't just a Filipino national tragedy, it's a global human tragedy. So
please help them if you can.