Terrible devastation in Philippines prompts renewed call for aid from the United Nations

As pic­tures and eye­wit­ness accounts con­tin­ue to come in from the Philip­pines, depict­ing the ter­ri­ble dev­as­ta­tion wrought by Typhoon Haiyan, the Unit­ed Nations is launch­ing a $300+ mil­lion appeal for aid from the world com­mu­ni­ty to help the more than eleven mil­lion peo­ple affect­ed by the storm. (Many of them are with­out shel­ter after the hur­ri­cane oblit­er­at­ed their dwellings).

“We are very much in sup­port and we are focused, first and fore­most, on the require­ments for food, shel­ter sup­port and med­ical sup­port, to pre­vent the out­break of pub­lic health dis­as­ters,” said the UN’s John Ging in a news release. He also point­ed out that the bod­ies of many deceased vic­tims need to be buried.

Typhoon Haiyan is one of the strongest storms ever record­ed to make land­fall — and per­haps the strongest, with gusts of near­ly two hun­dred miles per hour. The accom­pa­ny­ing storm surge was even more destructive.

Haiyan slammed into the Philip­pines a few days ago, wreak­ing hav­oc on Samar Island and Leyte, and lev­el­ing the city of Tacloban, where it is feared more than ten thou­sand peo­ple have per­ished. Trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture was hard hit; many roads are impass­able and air­ports heav­i­ly dam­aged, obstruct­ing relief efforts.

As a con­se­quence, the Philip­pines is espe­cial­ly in need of heli­copters, which can get into areas that oth­er air­craft and vehi­cles can’t.

For­tu­nate­ly, the Unit­ed States Navy has heli­copters that can trans­port sup­plies and do search and res­cue. Defense Sec­re­tary Chuck Hagel has ordered the air­craft car­ri­er USS George Wash­ing­ton to leave Hong Kong and make for the Philip­pines at the best speed she and her escorts can do, accord­ing to a Pen­ta­gon news release:

In com­pa­ny with the car­ri­er will be the cruis­ers USS Anti­etam (CG 54) and USS Cow­pens (CG 63), and the destroy­er USS Mustin (DDG 89). The sup­ply ship USNS Charles Drew (T‑AKE-10) is already under­way and will ren­dezvous with the group as they get clos­er. USS Lassen (DDG 82) got under­way yes­ter­day for the region. Embarked on board USS George Wash­ing­ton, is Car­ri­er Air Wing Five (CVW‑5).

CVW‑5 is a col­lec­tion of air­craft designed to per­form var­i­ous func­tions includ­ing dis­as­ter relief and includes the “Gold­en Fal­cons” of Heli­copter Sea Com­bat Squadron 12 fly­ing the MH-60S Sea­hawk; and the “Saber­hawks” of Heli­copter Mar­itime Strike Squadron 77 fly­ing the MH-60R Seahawk.

As need­ed, these ships and air­craft will be able to pro­vide human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance, sup­plies, and med­ical care in sup­port of the ongo­ing efforts led by the gov­ern­ment and mil­i­tary of the Repub­lic of the Philippines.

It’s won­der­ful to see the Navy step­ping up to help. Our capa­ble and ded­i­cat­ed sailors and Marines are just the peo­ple we ought to be send­ing to assist the sur­vivors. They’re well trained and they have the right equip­ment for the job.

Oth­er nations, includ­ing Cana­da, South Africa, New Zealand, the Unit­ed King­dom, Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, and Israel have pledged finan­cial aid, med­ical teams, and sup­plies. The Vat­i­can is also donat­ing to the relief effort, with Pope Fran­cis offer­ing a prayer for the vic­tims of one of the worst storms ever recorded.

If you would like to donate to help sur­vivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, we sug­gest mak­ing a con­tri­bu­tion to Mer­cy Corps. Mer­cy Corps is a high­ly effec­tive char­i­ty based in the Pacif­ic North­west that spe­cial­izes in dis­as­ter relief and improv­ing lives in the world’s tough­est places. They have a lot of expe­ri­ence work­ing in hard-hit areas and pro­vid­ing imme­di­ate assis­tance to dis­placed indi­vid­u­als. They also have low over­head and admin­is­tra­tive costs; 88% of funds donat­ed in the last five years went to help peo­ple in need. They do great work and can be trust­ed with your dollars.