Folks, I am here in Manila now and the tragedy going on is seriously underreported by American news media. I am posting here due to the urgency of the situation from my firsthand account.
A friend escaped the highway last week on a styrofoam raft from seven feet of floodwater.
My caretaker swam through three rivers to lose everything and her home, having nothing more than her mother and daughter, whom she found on the roof of what was her home. Not even a cell phone now, just them and the clothes on her back...and now a huge pile of medical bills.
Friends have been making donations and sandwiches, cleaning up, and giving clothes to others, so if you can help out, please do so. All I can do is report, report, report, given my current medical condition.
A hospital got flooded so badly in San Juan that they can no longer accept emergency room patients since it reached their emergency room floor.
An alligator got loose in a village up north where my uncle was at, but thankfully, nobody was hurt and it was caught on time.
These are some stories of the typhoon and the disaster it has brought, severely under-reported by American media.
If you want to help, please donate to the Philippine Red Cross or to the ABS-CBN Foundation (please designate to Sagip Kapamilya, the foundation arm dedicated to disaster relief). Or go to http://www.weinternational.org.ph/typhoon-ondoy/, a group founded by old peers. At this point, we need all the help we can get. Or my friend at Save The Children recommends you help us at https://secure.savethechildren.org/01/web_e_phil_flood
At the very least, please spread the word. We are going to have another one tonight and one more is expected to hit. Please, we'll take whatever we can get in Manila.