Typhoon Hagupit, Filipino for ‘lash’, named in the Philippines as Ruby, is currently increasing in speed and intensity. At time of writing it is 1600 km East of the Mindanao region of the Philippines but is predicted to gain strength over the next 72 hours and could become a category 4 super typhoon. At this time it is too early to predict where the typhoon will make landfall in the Philippines and at what speed, but Save the Children are watching the storm and preparing for the possibility of the typhoon hitting the Eastern Visayas over the weekend with full force, the region affecting where Supertyphoon Yolanda, internationally known as Haiyan, made landfall on November 8th 2013. Country Director Ned Olney said, “The communities Save the Children has been working with over the past year are still vulnerable. We have worked to prepare them for future weather events such as this but we are concerned that a storm of any strength will have a detrimental effect on those still in temporary shelters and those people who have made such big steps towards recovery over the past year.” “Save the Children has teams ready to respond with emergency life-saving aid. We always prepare for the worst but hope for the best and our obvious hope at this point is that the typhoon will have minimal impact on those vulnerable families.” Save the Children has emergency supplies ready for distribution, these include equipment to provide clean water to communities in affected regions, emergency shelter kits for home repairs, hygiene equipment to try and keep communities clean and safe and healthy, essential household equipment so for food preparation and tents to help teams set up child friendly spaces as quickly as possible to protect children from the chaos of an emergency situation. More information will be available as the storm develops. Save the Children have spokespeople across the Visayas and in Leyte, as they prepare for Typhoon Hagupit. Please follow @SavechildrenPH for updates as we track the storm and prepare our staff and beneficiaries for the impact of Hagupit/Ruby. (Please note change of Twitter handle) Over the past year Save the Children has reached over 800,000 people in ‘Yolanda’ affected region with interventions including emergency distributions of cash and shelter, support with housing, finding new and diverse sources of income, sanitation interventions and disaster preparedness information and equipment. Many families are recovering from what was the largest typhoon to ever make landfall but due to the nature and extent of the destruction and the time it takes to rebuild whole communities there are still huge needs across the region that will be further exacerbated by a storm.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 07:31:27 +0000