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News from the Ground on Ways to Help

A friend in Taiwan passed along the following ways to help:

Word on the street is that volunteer slots are pretty much saturated for the moment and disaster relief efforts are well underway.
Besides manpower the most important issues at hand are to accommodate children who need to start school and need temporary shelter or to be sent to schools in the area so that their lives can continue even with the devastation of the typhoon.

Donations to nonprofits and the government are definitely better than companies as companies can count donations as tax-writeoffs.

Some of the best ones in my opinion are Tzu Chi.
(listed below on the site but also here, uses google checkout and paypal
http://www.us.tzuchi.org/usa/home.nsf/home/index?OpenDocument)

2. World Vision
http://i-payment.worldvision.org.tw/offering.php?op=offeringitem&orgid=87

They allow online donations via credit card.
3. Red Cross Taiwan (this donation method is only valid within Taiwan)

紅十字會感謝您

捐款帳號:01070100

戶名:中華民國紅十字會臺灣省分會

98年八八水災捐款公告

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Source of Flooding in Taiwan?

Yesterday, President Ma Ying-jeou demanded that the WRA (Water Resources Agency) critically examine whether the extensive flooding was the result of a natural catastrophe or ineffective flood prevention efforts.

This morning, Water Resources Agency (WRA) Director-General Chen Shen-hsien pledged Monday to assume political responsibility for the severe flooding caused by Typhoon Morakot in southern Taiwan.

Regardless of who is to blame, it is time to help!

Flood

Full Story: http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1027417〈=eng_news&cate_img=logo_taiwan&cate_rss=TAIWAN_eng

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Scores left dead as typhoon strikes

Morokot has “left a trail of destruction across Taiwan” but is expected to weaken as it heads towards Shanghai

http://thejakartaglobe.com/media/images/large/afp20090809165606733.jpg

Source: http://news.scotsman.com/world/Scores-left-dead-as-typhoon.5537595.jp

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Image of Typhoon Morakot from NASA

This image from NASA shows Typhoon Morakot using a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=39720

NASA Image

Typhoon Morakot bore down on the island of Taiwan on August 7, 2009. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image at 1:25 p.m. local time (5:25 UTC), the center of the storm was just beginning to reach the shoreline. Morakot was a Category 2 storm with winds of about 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour or 85 knots) and was moving slowly northwest over Taiwan. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast that the storm would pass directly over Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, inundating the city with heavy rain.

As a Category 2 storm, Morakot does not possess a distinctive eye. The storm is large, however. Its spiraling clouds stretch from the Philippines to Japan’s southern islands.

Located in the warm waters of the West Pacific along the same line of latitude as the Bahamas, Taiwan is no stranger to tropical cyclones. The island is regularly bombarded by typhoons and tropical storms. Damage inflicted by slow-moving Morakot is most likely to come from intense rain falling on steep mountains for several hours, potentially triggering floods and landslides.

The high-resolution image provided above is at MODIS’ full spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions.

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A Centralization of Aid

Typhoon Morakot has wreaked havoc in Southeast Asia. Millions have been displaced and many have lost their lives. TyphoonMorakot.org will serve as a central place for all of those who need our help. Stay posted for more information and join the movement on Twitter.

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