Just days after the largest typhoon on record smashed into the Philippines, help is on the ground or on the way — but the clock is ticking. Typhoon Haiyan, a storm so enormous that it’s been described as literal hell by survivors, has left bloated bodies floating in the streets and incomprehensible damage in its wake. Initial estimates put the dead as high as 10,000.
As of last Tuesday, Philippine officials had lowered the count to 1,774. But this isn’t about hard statistics. Regardless of the final total, it’s the living who need us now — and fast. For Haiyan didn’t just kill the living. It sowed the seeds of disease.
According to UN and government officials, 800,000 residents have been displaced and more than two million people need food. US Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, who’s in charge of America’s military relief efforts, told NBC News, “The rest of the world needs to get mobilized, the rest of the donor community. A week from now it will be too late.”
JEWISHcolorado is working closely with JFNA, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, local officials, the Filipino Jewish community and global partners to assess the evolving situation on the ground and to send relief where it is needed.
Stop what you’re doing and give to those who need you most — the living. And please say a prayer.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
