Back Editor’s Note: Red Cross personnel are on the ground in Guam and available for interviews; please contact Dana Allen at (703) 206-8107 or (571)214-8619 the numbers above (Guam is 15 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time). Special reports about the Red Cross response to Supertyphoon Pongsona are posted daily at http://www.redcross.org. WASHINGTON, December 18, 2002 — Planes filled with recovery workers and relief supplies from the American Red Cross continue to arrive daily to help tens of thousands of Guam residents crippled by last week’s destructive Supertyphoon Pongsona. Now, the remnants of Pongsona are being blamed for deadly flooding and high winds along the U.S. West Coast, particularly in northern California. With winds upward of 180 miles per hour, Pongsona descended furiously on Guam December 8 with the intensity of a Category 5 hurricane, leveling homes, setting fuel tanks ablaze and severely damaging the island’s main hospital and Anderson Air Force base. A U.S. territory, Guam is located 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii. Pongsona also struck three of the neighboring Northern Mariana Islands - Saipan, Rota and Tinian - where it left more than 300 people homeless and caused significant crop damage. Red Cross damage assessment reports show that nearly 7,900 homes were damaged by Pongsona, with over 3,000 of those destroyed or suffering major damage. Thousands have been left homeless, and necessities like food, water, electricity and fuel are in short supply. Guam residents who have lived through past storms in “Typhoon Alley” say Pongsona was more devastating than anything they had seen before - including July’s Typhoon Chata’an, which ranks as one of the Top 5 large-scale disaster responses by the American Red Cross in 2002. “Supertyphoon Pongsona is an example of one of the thousands of ‘silent disasters’ that the Red Cross responds to every eight minutes in this country and our U.S. territories,” said Terry Sicilia, executive vice president, American Red Cross Disaster Services. “These silent disasters can affect thousands, like Pongsona, or just one family who suffers a residential fire. Regardless of whether the disaster makes headlines, the Red Cross is there with the same crucial comfort and care that all disaster victims deserve.” More than 150 Red Cross personnel from the U.S. mainland and Hawaii have already traveled to Guam to assist the local Red Cross in distributing meals and clean-up supplies and providing basic health care, crisis counseling and more. Additionally, Red Cross National Headquarters has implemented an innovative system that ensures Pongsona victims get immediate help despite communication and travel hurdles that a typhoon relief operation in Guam presents. Utilizing the Red Cross Call Center located in Falls Church, Virginia, those affected by Pongsona are using Red Cross phone banks to call a toll-free number which connects them to Red Cross caseworkers who help them obtain financial assistance and other Red Cross services on the island. More than 100 caseworkers are working around the clock to handle this massive operation; since December 13, over 15,000 calls have come in from residents on the island. The Red Cross has also activated a toll-free line, 1-866-GET-INFO, so that victims and their families throughout the United States can learn important information about how to get in touch with missing loved ones, post-disaster safety tips and guidelines about food safety during power outages information on how to talk with children about disasters and more. In California, Red Cross chapters from the San Francisco Bay area to Napa Valley and beyond are opening shelters for displaced residents and evacuees after three days of flooding and high winds that are partly to blame from after-effects from Supertyphoon Pongsona. Moisture from the typhoon plus an El Nino weather system has created conditions that have weather experts predicting severe weather along the West Coast for the next two weeks. The Red Cross is urging West Coast residents to prepare now for dangerous flooding and winter storms by using disaster preparedness information found at www.redcross.org or available at their local Red Cross chapter. All Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of Supertyphoon Pongsona and thousands of other disasters across the country each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to those in need. Call 1-800-HELP NOW or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make secure online credit card donations by visiting www.redcross.org. Governed by volunteers and supported by community donations, the American Red Cross is a nationwide network of nearly 1,000 chapters and Blood Services regions dedicated to saving lives and helping people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. Led by 1.2 million volunteers and 30,000 employees, the Red Cross annually mobilizes relief to families affected by more than 67,000 disasters, trains almost 12 million people in lifesaving skills and exchanges more than a million emergency messages for U.S. military service personnel and their families. The Red Cross is the largest supplier of blood and blood products to more than 3,000 hospitals across the nation and also assists victims of international disasters and conflicts at locations worldwide.

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