Bob Geldof launches Band Aid Ebola challenge, takes fundraising to questionable heights - People - News - The Independent

Bob Geldof launches Band Aid Ebola challenge, takes fundraising to questionable heights - People - News - The Independent: "

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Canadian Red Cross Supporting Relief Efforts in Philippines as Typhoon Hagupit Makes Landfall

Canadian Red Cross Supporting Relief Efforts in Philippines as Typhoon Hagupit Makes Landfall: "With the support of the Canadian Red Cross, the Philippine Red Cross is better prepared to provide relief to communities affected by Typhoon Hagupit, which made landfall on the weekend. While the extent of damage has not yet fully been realized as emergency responders work around the clock to access remote communities, the Philippines is also bracing for potential flooding caused by the tropical storm."



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IRIN Asia | From Haiyan to Hagupit - what changed? | Philippines | Disaster Risk Reduction | Early Warning | Natural Disasters

IRIN Asia | From Haiyan to Hagupit - what changed? | Philippines | Disaster Risk Reduction | Early Warning | Natural Disasters: "acloban, the city that bore the bulk of the estimated 6,000-plus fatalities 13 months ago, has reported no casualties thus far.

“We evacuated sooner this year. People need longer than one to two days to evacuate,” Tacloban’s mayor Alfred Romualdez told IRIN, admitting he broke rules to suspend classes before the storm had even entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility. “People need three to four days to evacuate. You cannot force evacuation. Before they can think about evacuating, they need to borrow money from their employer. Then it takes at least one day to return home to provinces.” "



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Congress allocated billions for Sandy relief. So far, this is where it's been spent | US news | The Guardian

Congress allocated billions for Sandy relief. So far, this is where it's been spent | US news | The Guardian: "fter hurricane Sandy hit, Congress granted federal agencies a total of $48b for disaster recovery. Two years later, much of it still hasn’t been spent.

Surprising, right? It’s true: the Office of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) has received $15bn for community infrastructure, and has only spent 12%. Transportation has spent about the same of its $12bn allocation for things like subway upgrades. The Army Corps of Engineers got $5.4bn for coastline protection, and hasn’t even spent a billion. Even Homeland Security, which received more than $11bn for Fema’s immediate emergency response, still has almost half to spend.

So what is a realistic timeframe for spending federal money?"



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BBC News - Typhoon Hagupit: Storm weakens as it nears Philippine capital Manila

BBC News - Typhoon Hagupit: Storm weakens as it nears Philippine capital Manila: "At least 21 people were killed by the storm, the Red Cross said, with the eastern island of Samar worst hit, but it caused far less damage than feared.

Thousands of people are heading home after about a million people were evacuated from vulnerable areas.

The city of Tacloban, which bore the brunt of Super Typhoon Haiyan last year, has emerged relatively unscathed."



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