all my keysmash are belong to you

A few days ago, Typhoon Ondoy hit Manila and surrounding areas, and flooded the city over. Worst floods in 40 years, so bad that cars just swirl around in the currents with passengers still inside them, so bad that some places are submerged under 20 feet of water. It was 85 km/h winds, and a month's worth of rain that fell in 6 hours. I mean, we're already pretty rainy to begin with.

My folks are fine but there's already at least 51 people dead, and around 280,000 people displaced. ETA: That's like if every citizen of Barbados or the Maldives got displaced. We can make a new country with the displaced.


WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Help for Typhooon Ondoy Victims in the Philippines - This is a good place to keep up with news, with active situation map and a list of ways you can donate. If you scroll down, there is a list of US-based donation drop-off points, though it's just California, New York, and New Jersey. You can also do credit card and PayPal.

2. Ondoy Places to Donate Relief Goods - This GoogleDocs has a more comprehensive list of how to donate under the 'Online/International' category.

3. SPREAD THE WORD.

ETAs: I guess the rest of the world is calling this one Typhoon Ketsana. What's with that, why do our typhoons get named twice. Here are brief news clips about the state of affairs in Manila from BBC and Al Jazeera. The president continues to be extraordinarily inept, and our own urban planning continues to fail us.