Shelterbox in the Philippines

Following the devastating typhoon in the Philippines in the last few days, @Shelterbox are preparing to send out response teams and aid as soon as possible.

Maps Worldwide are pleased to have been associated with Shelterbox for the last few years and our Managing Director has been out with them as part of one of their response teams, however in addition to our normal ‘donate your change’ scheme, we are asking everyone who can to support Shelterbox at this time.

The following is quoted from their website:

ShelterBox is maximising its personnel and aid in the Philippines to help displaced families after Typhoon Haiyan leaves devastation in its wake.

Following last month’s earthquake and Friday’s Typhoon Haiyan, ShelterBox has already deployed all its aid pre-positioned at the former US air base at Clark on Luzon island.

With more response teams arriving in the coming days, ShelterBox is now assessing the need to call on other stock held at Dubai, at Subang near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Melbourne in Australia and ait its Cornwall HQ in Helston.

Having weathered the storm on Bohol island, ShelterBox Response Team member Mark Dyer is now busy with colleagues helping local people and organisations to cope with the aftermath. He says, ‘Many people on Bohol were already living in tented structures, and away from their usual homes, after the earthquake. We had been setting up camps and putting people back on their own property.’

‘When we knew the typhoon was coming we advised people to lower the tents before the storm. So we are now going back to help people put these tents back up, so they will at least have places to live for the next few weeks.’

Although Typhoon Haiyan has now passed over across the South China Sea, there is still the fear of more weather devastation. ‘The biggest effect we are hearing is from flooding, and the rains are still coming through. Houses have been swept away, and there are sink holes.’

ShelterBox is also on standby to respond to any need in Vietnam. Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, is expected to next make landfall south of the capital Hanoi on Monday (between 03.00 am and 09.00 GMT). More than 600,000 people have already been evacuated in northern provinces. Meteorologists expect the typhoon to have decreased markedly in strength by then.

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Related articles

• Typhoon Haiyan Emergency Appeal (rotaryphilippines.wordpress.com)
• Philippines: Typhoon Haiyan prompts call for prayer (shanemark71.wordpress.com)