More than a month’s worth of rain fell in just 12 hours.

The Philippine capital Metro Manila recently experienced a devastating
typhoon. Dozens have died, whole houses are underwater, and the
Philippine government is ill-equipped to deal with the disaser. BBC’s
report is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8276347.stm,
but I don’t think anyone will know how just how much damage there is
until much later.

Imagine this: Katrina dumped over an inch of rainfall in Louisiana for
3 hours and another 0.5 inches per hour over the next 5 hours on
August 29, 2005. Philippine typhoon ‘Ondoy’ dumped an average of 2.24
inches per hour for over six hours.

By the time the rain stopped, more than 16 inches of rain had fallen
over Manila in 12 hours. To put that in context, only 15.39 inches of
rain fell throughout the month of September.

Many have lost their homes. Many are still stranded in their roofs in
desperate need of food, clothing, and shelter. The typhoon affected
people from all walks of life — rich and poor were stranded and lost
homes — but in the Philippines, the poorest are the most affected.

Please refer to this blog for pictures and video on the flooding so
you can see what has happened for yourself.
http://www.quezon.ph/2009/09/26/how-to-help/

I am writing to you now to appeal to your sense of compassion and
strongly encourage you to donate to the Philippine Red Cross.

I was able to donate using my U.S. credit card through this link:
http://www.redcross.org.ph/Site/PNRC/Default.aspx?S=48&SS=972

I’m terribly frustrated and sad that I can’t do much more to help. The
one thing I can do is spread the word about the disaster;
international news sites haven’t reported much (hours after the event,
I still don’t see any stories on CNN).

There aren’t enough distress signals out there, so if you can forward
this link to people you know who want to help, please do so.