CARE Responds to Typhoon Victims in Philippines

CARE staff member Laura Sheahen talked with her co-workers already in the Philippines as she waited on her flight to join them.

“My colleague who’s on the ground there says it’s apocalyptic destruction,” Sheahen told WABE. “She says just everything is destroyed. Electrical poles are broken like toothpicks. She talked to a mayor of a town there who says almost all the houses have lost their roofs. It’s just, it’s complete devastation.”

Sheahen, based in Atlanta, is a Senior Communications Officer. She is just one of many CARE staffers on the way to the disaster area several of whom work out of the Atlanta headquarters.

The first priorities will be to marshal supplies from all over the globe to provide clean water, shelter and food. Sheahen says CARE’s goal will be to help up to 150,000 victims just in these first few days of disaster response.