DEC appeal for Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam
Appeal on behalf on the Disasters Emergency Committee.
In one week from Saturday 26 September the East Asia region was hit by 3 separate natural disasters; Typhoon Ketsana swept through the Philippines that day and onto Vietnam on the 29th causing extensive damage and flooding; on 30th September in Indonesia an earthquake registering 7.6 on the Richter scale struck western Sumatra followed by an aftershock of 6.6 a day later.
We are now a week on from the devastating disasters that struck East Asia and the full extent of the damage caused is starting to become clear.
Thousands of families across the region have lost everything – an estimated 2.5 million people have been affected by the earthquake in Indonesia alone. Here the worst damage occurred in Sumatra, in an area not often visited by tourists.
In the Philippines, heavy rains have been falling since Friday, making conditions even more miserable for those left homeless. We were relieved to hear that none of our contacts in the Philippines lost their lives, but many of them have been affected in one way or another – either losing homes or relatives. Public transport; flights and ferries across the Philippines were affected in the short term, but currently things have returned to normal. The worst hit area was Metro Manila, where in six hours they received the equivalent of one month’s rainfall. Some residential areas are still flooded, but the popular tourist areas of Makati City, the Manila Bay area and Ortigas are operating normally. The typhoons did not hit the Visayas region, so the islands of Cebu, Bohol and Negros are not affected.
There were three members of Audley staff in Central Vietnam at the time the typhoon hit. There was plenty of warning, so they were quite safe, but they did have to change their plans a little to accommodate cancelled flights and flooded roads. Most of the waters have now receded, but there are a few hotels in Hoi An still recovering from flooding, in particular the Victoria beach Resort and the Life Resort. We are expecting these to reopen in the next week or so. Our thoughts go out to the staff of the hotels and the other people in Hoi An who are only just rebuilding their lives after severe flooding in autumn 2008.
Audley have made a donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal to help the victims of these disasters. If you would also like to make a donation, please visit the DEC website.
