So the Philippines are being demolished. This is what global warming denial hath wrought.
Haiyan made landfall as an extremely powerful super typhoon, perhaps the strongest ever recorded at landfall, with sustained winds estimated at 195 mph (315 kph) by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Previously, Hurricane Camille, which struck the northern Gulf Coast in 1969, held the record with 190 mph sustained winds at landfall. After striking Samar, Haiyan quickly crossed Leyte Gulf and the island of Leyte as it cut through the central Philippines.
I’m used to storms weakening as they pass over land. This one barely blinked. The havoc it’s wrought will fit right in with what Katrina did to New Orleans. Hundreds are confirmed dead, thousands missing. Homes gone. Lives destroyed. So we’re needed. If you’ve got a spare dollar, donate it for some fellow human beings who desperately need all the assistance they can get.
We’re all we’ve got, folks. One thing we know for sure as atheists: there is no help coming from above (well, not above airplanes, anyway). There’s no supernatural aid to counter the effects of a super typhoon. Just us.
Let’s do all we can.
Truly horrific.
My preferred charity is Doctors Without Borders.
I just made a small earmarked donation – a drop in the bucket, but everything helps.
Please do what you can, using whatever charity you trust to use your money well.
Trivial by comparison, but this weekend is the 100th anniversary of The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, sometimes referred to as “The White Hurricane,” as well as the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975.
We are at the mercy of nature, and we need to look out for each other.
This Katrina survivor will promise to chip in a penny for every million $ the Vatican gives– not collects from churches in the US, no, but gives out of its vaults in Rome. Betcha I don’t run out of pennies! The pope can write a check on the Vatican Bank, can’t he? (Like he did after Katrina– not.)
The Foundation Beyond Belief has chosen the Citizen’s Disaster Response Center as the recipient of donations. They are based in the Phillipines, and so are already “on the ground”. 100% of your donation goes to CDRC, the foundation does not take a cut.
http://foundationbeyondbelief.org/crisis