Typhoon Ketsana - Phillipines, Vietnam, Laos

CARE Canada has joined forces with the HUMANITARIAN COALITION to respond to the crises in Asia, including devastating Typhoon Ketsana.

CARE's emergency teams in Vietnam and Laos are responding to the worst typhoon the region has seen in decades. CARE’s emergency response also continues in the Philippines, helping some of the nearly two million people affected by flooding as the same storm ravaged Manila earlier this week.

In Vietnam alone, initial government reports estimate that the typhoon has killed 66 people with another 11 missing and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed, while early reports from Laos indicate that 20 villages have been submerged in one province alone. CARE is bracing for these initial estimates to rise significantly in the coming days.

Together we are more powerful:

► LEARN: Read CARE’s Media Releases on this emergency and others, and learn more about the HUMANITARIAN COALITION . Read CARE's eye witness account from Vietnam.

► JOIN US: Join CARE’s Facebook Fan Page or sign up to the CARE_package's Twitter to get the most up to date news on the emergencies, and spread the word.

► TAKE ACTION: Help CARE respond to the devastating emergencies throughout Asia, including the earthquake. Please support CARE's Emergency Relief Fund or the HUMANITARIAN COALITION's joint response.
 

EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT
The worst typhoon in decades
By Peter Newsum, Country Director, CARE Vietnam
Sept. 30, 2009

Typhoon Ketsana, which caused such horrific damages in the Philippines, has now hit Vietnam. It is officially the worst typhoon that some areas of Vietnam has seen in decades. As it slammed through the small island nation of the Philippines, we in Vietnam braced for what we knew would soon hit our coastlines.

Now it has hit and for the moment we are preparing for the very worst.

There are many different things rushing through my mind; most of it is hope for the people who have been affected and largely I’m hoping for very few casualties and little suffering, however I realise that reality might be different.

I know the Vietnamese government has done a tremendous job preparing for the storm. They’ve been tracking the storm for several days, evacuating people from high-risk areas, closing schools and taking necessary precautions to keep casualties as low as possible.

But we also have to be realistic. Typhoon Ketsana’s strength was overwhelming, bringing storms and rains. The storms created devastation and the rains caused significant flooding. So now, we are banding together and mounting an effort to ensure a rapid and effective emergency response.

As always, getting information in these initial stages of a disaster is very difficult. Phone lines are down, roads are flooded and communication channels are blocked. In the face of these many challenges we’re doing our best to pull together a quick response.

In the meantime, while we cannot tell the scale of what we are about to face, we are getting ready to help those in need as best we can. We have arranged to purchase supplies and staff are deploying to go into the disaster zone, all while receiving new information and updating our teams.

Although we are yet to realise the full extent of the damage Ketsana has caused and the potential catastrophe that awaits us, we know from experience what the immediate needs of people and their communities will be and as we gain momentum for the response.

Clean water, food, emergency supplies, water containers, clothes, and kitchen utensils to name just a few are our greatest priority. 

Typhoon Ketsana; The poorest will suffer the most
Lisa Ognjanovic, CARE Laos
October 1, 2009

As we waited for Typhoon Ketsana to hit, our first priority was the safety of our staff. Any at risk were immediately called back and commonsense things like closing windows and doors, making sure we had enough drinking water and ensuring that our staff prepared their own houses were done so we were ready to concentrate on people’s needs as soon as the storm passed.

Yesterday morning the team in Sekong, where the Typhoon hit hardest, sent through pictures of how high the river had come. It really hit home what kind of disaster the villages CARE works with along the river have experienced; they tell us the river rose from 7 metres to 28 metres high. We are still to get access to many of those villages so the extent of the damage and human impact remains unclear.

I have been in storms in Laos before where rooftops have been blown away and trees uprooted, but this storm was far worse than what we have ever seen. I can only imagine what impact a storm of this size may have on these poor communities.

We have heard unconfirmed reports of people seeing houses washing down rivers. Houses in Laos along the river are constructed out of bamboo and wood and would not have been able to withstand a storm of this size – the homes of the poorest people are even flimsier. As always, those who are already so vulnerable will suffer the most in this emergency.

Today as news of the damage and the need start to trickle in, we are well and truly beginning our response. While we wait for the formal assessment we are preparing to reach very remote locations, procuring water purification tablets that will be essential to be able to provide clean water, finding out where we can get large quantities of rice.

I have seen on CNN and BBC reports of the Typhoon hitting Vietnam and Cambodia, but it has hit us here in Laos as well and hit us hard. The remoteness of the country means information is slow to emerge but we know that many people are going to need our assistance; now and well into the future.