Typhoon Ketsana and Parma, and Samoa tsunami
Last week Ketsana battered the Philippines, killing some 300 people, leaving many parts of the country inundated and forcing  700,000 people to seek refuge in evacuation camps. Aid organisations were envisaging a dreary scenario as a second typhoon, Parma (even bigger and stronger than Ketsana), was expected to enter the country from the north. Fortunately, this never happened as Parma was pulled back by another storm, Melor, present in the area. Meanwhile heavy rains keep falling in and around the still partially submerged Manila.

Reports of deadly landslides are coming in (Monday, 12^th of October) from Caritas teams in the Philippines. Some 160 people have been killed by the landslides and heavy showers that are battering Manila and the north of the country. The situation in the capital continues to be critical as the rain keeps falling. Anton Pascal, Director of Caritas Manila explains that people are in severe need of water, food and medicine for diarrhea. Mr. Pascal is also worried about the increasing risk for disease spread as thousands of animal carcasses lie decaying and littering water sources.

In the meantime, Ketsana has moved to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, causing heavy rains, floods and landslides. Over a hundred people have died and more than 600,000 were evacuated . In the same day, a tsunami hammered the Pacific islands of Samoa and Tonga, triggered by an 8.3 magnitude submarine earthquake in the Pacific ocean. The wave killed over 150 people, damaged the islands infracstructures and left many people homeless.

Caritas’ actions
In Indonesia, Caritas is helping pull survivors and the dead from the rubble and assessing the needs of the victims inside and outside the city of Padang. The situation remains unclear as the real range of the disaster is still unknown. The first priorities are now the removal of the corpses buried under the rubble to avoid the spread of disease, and the supply of shelter, food and adequate medical assistance to the survivors.

In the Philippines Caritas is helping survivors with food and shelter and is rushing to do more. Caritas has launched an appeal for some € 600,000 to provide food, medicine, shelter and other aid items enough to supply 50,000 people during a month.

In Vietnam Caritas focuses on helping people rebuilds their homes and livelihoods by providing material.

In Cambodia Caritas will provide a one month food ration to 13,000 people and other relief items, as well as 10 mobile clinics with a sufficient supply of medicine.

In the Pacific islands, Caritas Samoa estimates that it will need some USD $ 100,000 to provide help to the victims. Access to clean water has been identified as the main problem, thus Caritas is buying large quantities of water and trucking them to the areas in need.

European Caritas organisations are joining the efforts of the whole Caritas Confederation to help as many as possible in South East Asia. The Confederation has already pledged € 2,5 million.