Hams do their bit after disaster
The flood­ing that swept through the Philip­pines has claimed 800 lives after the enor­mous dev­as­ta­tion left by Trop­i­cal Storm Washi. Local hams in the dis­as­ter area are now doing their best to help out with relief efforts. The search for sur­vivors con­tin­ues along with the many buri­als that are needed.
The Red Cross reports the storm swept away entire coastal vil­lages as it dumped heavy rain trig­ger­ing mud slides. Some 47,000 peo­ple are in evac­u­a­tion cen­tres. Pres­i­dent Benig­no Aquino is set to vis­it the dis­as­ter zone tomorrow.
The storm flood­ed a riv­er that sent mud­dy flood­wa­ters from near­by moun­tains that coat­ed streets. It has been a bad sea­son for the coun­try with back-to-back typhoons in Sep­tem­ber leav­ing many peo­ple dead in the north­ern Philippines.
— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man, IARU Region 3, Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Committee.