We're now starting to get updates from the PCVs in the most devastated areas: Samar & Leyte.
Viewer discretion is advised.
PCV 271 Andrew: Safe and alive after the most horrific three days of my life. Airlifted out of Tacloban to Manila by Philippine military C-130 plane. What happened is incomprehensible. Please pray/send thoughts to Tacloban, it is completely devastated and gone and there is no food or water with thousands of people wandering the streets.
PCV 272 Michelle: I was in tacloban during the storm. By a miracle I am alive. I have too many thoughts not enough words. Please be praying.
PCV 272 Bill: We were airlifted today by the Philippines military on a C-130, the planes they transport tanks in, herded like cattle with little children, packed to capacity, from Cebu City then to Manila, where I am now. We walked for three hours to the airport, starting at 4 a.m., in darkness, in a group of PCVs, Filipino rescue workers, foreign tourists, and families with children, in a city without power, lighting our way by our cell phones. Dead, black and bloated bodies lined our route, and we tried to avert our eyes while the news people took photos. Somehow we survived the typhoon in our concrete, mostly windowless hotel, just by accident. When we emerged, the devastation was complete and chilling -- no power, no food, no water, no contact with any type of rescue. A poor young woman lay dead right outside of our hotel -- the streets were flooded, houses floated down the street, lines were down everywhere, and cars were overturned in heaps; we did our best to figure out what we should do... I'm too tired to finish this post right now. And I'm using my friend Hannah's computer because mine may have been ruined.
'Apocolyptic' aftermath
Photos: Super Typhoon Haiyan
Thank you for this update. All of us in the PC Thailand community are keeping you all in our thoughts at this time. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist PCVs and their site communities; we understand that every little bit counts in helping everyone affected by the typhoon.
ReplyDeleteStay strong,
Sara
Thanks so much, Sara. It's been a really difficult time here for everyone, but we're trying to do whatever we can to help our adopted Filipino countrymen. I've been hearing that the best way to help right now is to donate money straight to global (legitimate) organizations like the Red Cross or UNICEF.
DeleteI know that some recently COS'd RPCVs (whose sites were among the hardest hit) have been able to acquire the bank account numbers of their host families and friends from site who are in dire need. I would be able to pass that along if you'd rather have a direct impact like that. Just let me know!