As typhoon zone recovers, more Canadian aid on way

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It’s been 12 days since one of the strongest typhoon’s in history, “typhoon Haiyan”, flattened huge sections of of the southern Philippines. And while world-wide relief efforts have been under-way for nearly two weeks, there are still some areas waiting desperately for help. Wednesday morning, Scot Urquhart was on hand, when the federal government, the Canadian Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders went to work to try to ease some of suffering in those areas, that have been hardest hit.

As food and medical supplies continue to pour in; even seasoned relief workers like Jonathan Jennings are taken aback, by what they see: “Each disaster is unique, but certainly we’re shocked by the scale of the devastation in the Philippines.

Jonathan Jennings is the Deputy Director of Doctors Without Borders, and with the help of the Red Cross they’re packing up 320 tons of non-medical items destined for the Philippines Wednesday night: “We have thousands of tents. Thousands of shelter kits. Water purification tablets. These items are essential to stave off further disease.”

In her Hamilton food stall, Margie Lim worries about that too. Her niece is still in Tacloban, one of the hardest hit cities. She lost her father-in-law to the storm, and her young daughter, has asthma: “We’re all pushing to help them, It’s not safe for them.”

In another hard hit area near Cebu, Ofelia Punzalan’s four children have shelter but food is scarce: “They making the price double. That’s why it’s very hard to get food. If you don’t have money, you cannot buy the food.”

Jennings is confident that situation will change very soon: “We’ve overcome the access barriers. We will be able to get this material into the hands of the most needy.”

The current shipment was made possible by a five million dollar injection of new cash into Canada’s relief effort by the Federal Government. And International Development Minister Christian Paradis says, the Red Cross is the right agency to do the job. He was convinced of that by the devastating rail crash in his home riding of Lac Megantic: “People were in distressed. The downtown was still burning, and there was already a team there. I was amazed by the rapidity of the response.”

For those still suffering in the Philippines, it’s a case of the faster the better.

The first plane left tonight around 9pm. It will be followed by three others over the next two days. And among the items being shipped to Cedu, the capital of Leyte is an inflatable hospital. It’s basically like a huge indoor soccer dome but contains operating rooms, hospital beds, and a pharmacy to try to help curb the dangers of infections like dysentery, typhoid, tetanus and respiratory infections which sometimes can claim as many lives as the storm itself did.