By now you have probably heard that the Philippines was hit by a major typhoon yesterday. Here’s a link from The Weather Channel: http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/super-typhoon-philipines-photos_2010-10-18. While it turned out to be a non-event for us in the Manila area, the northern part of the Philippines was hit very hard.
We are very concerned for Marissa’s aunts, sisters and younger brother that live in Ilocos Sur. They are on the northwest coast near the South China Sea, which hopefully wasn’t damaged as much as the Pacific coast on the east. But it’s quite likely that they faced 160-180kph (100-110mph) winds. Marissa has not heard from them as of yet. I am hoping that we will get confirmation that everybody is OK later today.
I strongly encourage you to donate to relief efforts, as many people will have lost their homes and their livelihood. We plan to give to Marissa’s family directly to help with building damage and crop loss as well as donating to general relief efforts.
