Mindanao is the southernmost island of the Philippine Islands. Well south of the typhoon belt, it is usually spared destructive storms-until last night. About the time when I was looking forward to the West Coast edition of Cheers and Jeers, Typhoon Sendong struck northern Mindanao. It hit around 3:00 A.M. local time when most were sleeping in their homes. The death toll is at least 436 and this is from a seven hour old report.
http://www.firstpost.com/...
The Cagayan river reached flood stage while still dark. If you hang out in C&J you might have seen a photo I posted while on a whitewater trip on the Cagayan river. Later that day I fell in the river, twice, and fried the camera. While waiting to be fished out I had a peaceful ride downstream looking at eagles overhead and the cashew trees along the banks. Now many of the people in the homes I looked upon that day are dead.
I was last in Cagayan De Oro and Iligan in northern Mindanao in 2006. I stayed near the junction of the Mandulog and Tubod rivers. Walking along the levy wall, looking out over the view from 20 feet up I thought this was one of the most peaceful places I had ever seen. It is a good thing my in-laws moved out of the nighborhood a few years later to higher ground. They tell us that floodwaters reached or rose above rooftop level there.
Here is the report from CNN
and from Iligan
From a Facebook post by a student of Mrs T
Northern Mindanao needs help ..... Media would be of great help to bring this out. Pahulay sa ta anang away bata sa Manila .... Northern Mindanao is crying.
What then can we do? As wealthy Americans a long way away, what can we do?
Do what we did
Go here
http://www.redcross.org.ph/...
7:17 PM PT: I had trouble with the Red Cross Philippines site. It seems to be set up for Filipino donors only-asks for your barangay (local administrative unit, something like a city council district) as a required field. We made our donation through World Vision
http://www.worldvision.org/...