A Stamford-based AmeriCares emergency response team has arrived in the Philippines to assist those displaced by Typhoon Hagupit.
The team joined an AmeriCares-supported response team in-country to assist with coordinating aid deliveries and assessing survivors”™ needs. Hagupit, known locally as Ruby, made landfall Dec. 6 in the central and eastern Philippines with rains and hurricane-force winds, causing flooding and  power outages. Up to 1 million Filipinos evacuated their homes in advance of the storm.
It has been a year since Typhoon Haiyan raked the Philippines. AmeriCares reacted to that storm with more than $21 million in relief aid.
The AmeriCares response team in Manila is ready to distribute hygiene supplies to shelters as soon as it is safe to travel, the nonprofit reported. (The rain in Manila at press Tuesday morning was still torrential. The storm is universally described as “slow moving.”)
Shipments of medicines, bandages, baby care products and other relief supplies are planned in the coming days. AmeriCares also awarded emergency funding to a partner organization in the Philippines in advance of the storm to purchase food and relief supplies for displaced families.
“Roads are flooded, power lines are down and roofs are blown off homes,” said Paul Pagaran, AmeriCares’ response and recovery coordinator for the Philippines. “We won”™t know the full extent of the damage for days, but with thousands of families in crowded evacuation centers we anticipate our help will be needed.”
AmeriCares has been responding to emergencies in the Philippines since 1985, most recently working alongside the Philippines Department of Health and local partners to repair health centers damaged or destroyed by Haiyan.
AmeriCares has been aiding survivors of natural disasters, disease outbreaks, political conflict and extreme poverty around the world for more than 30 years.
To make a donation to support AmeriCares’ typhoon response, go to americares.org/ruby or call 800-486-HELP.
