Calamity Relief Needed ~Philippines

Calamity relief in the Philippines urgently needed due to typhoon Ondoy/Ketsana. Please help if you can. Send donations, spread the news, send thoughts and prayers... Some details can be found here:
> http://ferdinandcc.org/
> http://tourism-philippines.com/philippines-flood-donation-appeal/
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Ketsana_%282009%29
> YouTube videos with keywords "Ondoy", "Ketsana": http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ondoy%20Ketsana&search_type=&aq=f
> How you can help: http://pinoyissue.blogspot.com/2009/09/public-service-how-you-can-help-ondoy.html
> Donating to Manila from abroad: http://moongirl.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/donating-to-manila-from-abroad/
> Definitely Filipino, a Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/i.am.filipino?ref=nf


Thank you very much.
May the Force be with Us all.

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(Just a personal account of the event:
(I just got back from Vincentian Hills Seminary (atop a forested hill) in Angono, Rizal (Philippines) one of the "less affected" areas (though also experienced flooding and cut off of services), and the scene is gloomy. Along with priests, seminarians, sisters, high school girl retreatants (who should have gotten home on the 26th to Pampanga that is hundreds (or thousands?) of kilometers away), the feast of St. Vincent de Paul (Sept. 27) was "celebrated" in drab. A narra tree by the small bridge down the slope was uprooted, and as electrical cables were caught up in its branches, the big electrical post fell down onto the road. Our electricity was cut off, including phone connection, wi-fi connection wasn't available so even with the laptops on battery we won't be able to connect for help or see what's happening outside, and our cellphone signals went dead for a long time; or the signal went on and off sporadically. We didn't receive news on TV, nor get our newspapers. We were somewhat stranded (we could go downhill, but only on foot and the area around was still muddy or flooded) in the seminary for 2 days and I didn't know how bad the situation was until I went out in a van for the first time to attempt going home to Quezon Province on Sept. 27 and drive into the towns of Taytay and Cainta in Rizal, to Antipolo and back to Angono, Rizal. But It was only tonight (upon returning to Lucena City, Quezon Prov.) that I really learned how wide the damage was: frontpage news nationwide, dozens of people already dead, lots more properties lost or damaged, and still a lot of areas flooded).
)

Ondoy situation map for Metro Manila (you could also zoom in to see Vincentian Hills Seminary (labeled "Vincentian Seminary") somewhere in Angono, south of Metro Manila):

> http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110868206150348750692.00047479b6400ee29bd89&ll=14.645791,121.107874&spn=0.107954,0.154324&source=embed

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ABOVE: Front view of Vincentian Hills Seminary in Angono, Rizal. To my right is downhill to the gate, some 200-500(?) meters away

BELOW: Down the slope from the seminary just inside the gate, a concrete electrical and communications post blocks the way.




ABOVE: Approaching the bridge to the gate of the compound. At right is the fallen narra tree. The muddy part with water is the bridge, clogged under by dirt, wood, mud... so that the water passes over it, not under. A makeshift bridge was made (far left of photo) by Mr. Noynoy, a Vincentian Hills Seminary cook.
Beyond you can see the fallen concrete post.

BELOW: A view from the fallen post. The fallen tree cannot be seen, at the left. Some cables still connected to another post, far into the photo. (Thinner cable at the left of photo was caught in the fallen tree's branch.)



ABOVE: The concrete avenue now looks like a dirt road.

BELOW: An appliance store in Rizal Province. One of the many business establishments damaged by the typhoon.


BELOW: Flooded street at the side of Puregold grocery/supermarket in Taytay, Rizal