Florida Catholic | Editorial

World extends helping hands

Published: 05.21.08

It’s time to hope, help and pray.

Imagine a tidal wave of water 10 to 12 feet high sweeping through the brackish water of the Everglades. Your home is in the lowlands of Florida, so the water coming from the surge of this hurricane – let’s call it Nathan – is going to cause lots of trouble.

Even if the water hits your home, chances are the home can sustain the initial waves. Likely, it will flood, but you have a chance of escaping. With evacuation warnings and even after the storm hits, you might be able to climb on the roof and wait for a rescue. We who know hurricanes and their aftermath have seen such things. We saw them in 2005 in New Orleans and other areas of the Gulf during Hurricane Katrina, where the levees broke and water rushed in. Some houses withstood the wind and water, although people waited for days for help. More than 1,800 people died and almost 800 were still missing.

Now let’s take that same storm, those same conditions, to Southeast Asia. In the Pacific, our Hurricane Nathan gets named Cyclone Nargis, and in Myanmar, the Everglades are the lowlands of the Irrawaddy delta. The big difference is that while in Florida, building codes were strengthened after Hurricane Donna in 1960, in Myanmar, building codes, per se, don’t matter all that much – many people live in grass houses or thatched huts, according to Tom Price, senior communications manager for Catholic Relief Services.

This explains one of the major reasons the death toll since the cyclone struck Myanmar is already officially at 78,000, and unofficial estimates put it much higher, more than 100,000. Myanmar is “one of the least developed areas in that region,” Price told the Florida Catholic. Thatched homes just washed away. “We know – our local partner is telling us – that people are congregating in the schools and churches.” These are the structures that were built more solidly, and could withstand the force of the storm.

CRS, the official international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic Church, works with numerous other groups throughout the world to gather and provide services not only when disaster strikes, but to provide development assistance in parts of the world where people need food and a better life. Because the government in Myanmar is accepting aid only from Asian partners, CRS works with local and regional groups to deliver relief and needed supplies.

As of May 19, CRS was targeting to reach 60,000 affected people with basic emergency packets of food, shelter, water, medical care and psychological support. More than 30,000 had already received relief and other supplies through the Catholic Church in Myanmar.

“Hopefully, the world’s compassion that is shown to Myanmar that is shown to this disaster will open hearts in Myanmar as a whole,” Price said.

Almost at the same time, China was affected by a major earthquake and significant aftershocks. Caritas Hong Kong, CRS’ partner agency there, provided aid. The Chinese government and the Chinese people themselves were providing fast and efficient aid, so that the request from the Chinese government was for monetary donations, not direct assistance. CRS in the United States is providing such aid to Caritas Hong Kong. Price said it was “very meaningful that the Chinese government was saying thank you for the world’s help” last weekend.

CRS is always grateful for the donations and prayers of supporters, he said, and if there is another major disaster this summer, he hopes people will continue to respond. “We can’t thank American Catholics enough.”

It’s hard to imagine disasters half a world away. But if you connect it to something you think could happen here, in our own state, if the conditions were slightly different, you get some idea of just how shocking the devastation in Asia is. It’s time to hope, help and pray.

And be prepared yourself – hurricane season begins in a few weeks.

Catholic Relief Services is supporting the relief efforts of Caritas Internationalis in Myanmar in response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. To donate, call 1-877-HELP-CRS (1-877-425-7277), donate online at www.crs.org, or send a check to Catholic Relief Services, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD, 21203-7090. Memo line: Southeast Asia Natural Disaster.

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