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The 4x4 Philippines Relief Operation Team - 08 Dec 2004
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4x4 Philippines, with the valuable help of Kamote and added manpower ( womanpower? (IMG:http://4x4ph.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) of Purple Trail and Wolf Den's people, was able to give relief goods to the people of Makaray-karay, Infanta (also known as Kamagong) and Manggahan, Daraitan.

After hearing from Wolf Den that no relief goods were being given to the people of the said areas we couldn't wait to extend support. With only 2 vehicles (a Suzuki Vitara and a Nissan Patrol) and limited manpower we decided to push through with the relief operation. As reported by Wolf Den there are no relief efforts being sent to these people (no media coverage about these areas). We personally think that we should not waste time. Besides, this general area has been dubbed as our playground.

Being able to personally deliver the help to the actual victims and hear their stories was an incomparable experience.

The following who made this operation possible were:
Crawdaddy
Slim
Kamote
Maica (non-forum-posting Purple Trail member)
Tammie (non-forum-posting Purple Trail member)
Eric (my 11-year-old brother)
Kuya Romy (manpower support provided by Wolf Den)

As the story goes:
We greatly appreciate Kamote's enthusiasm and eagerness even if we gave him a very short notice, as I personally talked to him through Yahoo Messenger about the relief operation between 12:30AM & 1:00AM on Dec. 8, Wednesday.

We arrived in Kamagong at around 8:00AM. Just a few meters away from the Barangay Hall was the first major landslide. With only 200 bags of relief goods (rice, instant noodles, canned goods, clothes, candies, rosaries), we hoped to get closer to the end of the Marcos Highway/Infanta road construction where there are people stranded by 30 major landslides, without counting the road erosions. At the first landslide, Purple Trail decided to survey the road ahead while Kamote & I pushed ourselves to overcome the landslide.

When we reached the second major landslide it was visible the vehicles will not be able to make it. After having brunch we decided that Purple Trail, with Eric & Kuya Romy, will personally carry the goods to the affected areas while Kamote & I will stay with the vehicles as the weather is still erratic (strong winds & drizzle might trigger more landslides).

Purple Trail conquered 24 major landslides, passing through thick mud, huge boulders, and fallen logs. Along the way they were able to interview families who were trying to evacuate Bagong Silang & Makaray-karay. They even spoke with 2 men walking all the way from Real for almost 2 days. Talking to these people, we found out a group led by a German doctor attempted to give out medicines, but only made it to the 3rd major landslide. Chilly winds and tired feet did not stop them. 4x4 Philippines was the first one to successfully reach Makaray-karay to give out relief goods, according to Kuya Joey, the son of the Barangay Captain. They, and the other stranded families, have been eating kamoteng-kahoy for the past 3 days to survive the hunger. Purple Trail made it back & forth in 5 hours. An elder's small way of saying "thank you" to Purple Trail even waited for them on their way back to give them walking sticks to help them cross the landslides (IMG:http://4x4ph.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

After meeting up with Kamote before the 1st landslide at 5:30PM, we set out for Manggahan, Daraitan. Leaving Kamote & his Patrol at Wolf's gate house (due to front drive problems) we reached Manggahan around 7:30PM. Residents, especially those living beside the river, had their properties & livelihood (chickens, horses, root crops, etc.) wiped out when the Daraitan River overflowed. Dead bodies were also recovered from the river. The 2 hanging bridges connecting Manggahan with it's neighboring barangay was washed out, so there is still no communication with the residents there.

Since there was no electricity we handed the relief goods over to the Barangay Captain, who promised to distribute the donations today.

Please note, we are only sharing our experience and giving the 4x4 Philippines family a status report. This is also to give you an idea of the condition there, especially to those groups still organizing their own relief efforts.

To sum it all up: What we did is not enough. For those who are planning to help, please consider these areas.

What's sad about this is we still kept on hearing chainsaws working, not along the road or the landslides, but distant & seem to be coming from the mountains...

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PICTURES

Great job craw and company !

Even the "purples" got thier knees muddy, how i wished i could have joined you guys but my sched just wont permit it till after saturday rest assured that my people and my pick up stationed up there will have to cover for me even if i cant be there.

Its people like you guys who still make sense of this very troubled country of ours, god bless.....

We'll be there Sunday. In the meantime lets solicit more goods. We can use Wolf Den's gate house as a drop off and collation and pickup point.

Craw - what exactly will they need aside from rice and canned goods?

I am also thinking of a long term project there - reforestation and alternative livelihood program.

great work guys.will aim for the sunday

congrats guys! keep up the excellent job! I will try to join if schedule permits!

Clothes, jackets, blankets, mats/banigs, water, medicine & vitamins, candies...

Grabe weather doon. 5 times colder than Baguio. Just always remember the kids there.

We're also thinking about that: reforestation & livelihood programs are already on the drawing board. We're just ironing out the plans and how to make this happen.

Craw,

Kawawa mga tao sa mga hard to reach places.

We were told Sunday that wet rice is being sold at P60/kilo and that General Nakar was a place rescue efforts hardly ever reached.

Looks like everyone's missed the Tanay area as an area needing help as well!!!

For those who are interested 8:00 sunday my gate house in tanay meeting place, for those who want to help out you can drop of the stuff contact no. is 09175233269

also, Kuya Joey told us 1 media group went there but walang dalang goods, BUT they (the media group) reported that they gave goods to that area daw.

Beebs,
this Sunday where will we go to distribute the goods?

I will join you this Sunday. Will solicit donation from friends for the victims in Kamagong and Mangahan. Those who would like to go to Real this Saturday can hook up with me, as I will be making another trip to said place to deliver relief goods.

Potable water. Diseases have not started spreading (yet), but the children in evacuation centers are starting to suffer from diarrhea. And they will need clean water to prepare the instant noodle packets (et al) arriving in bulk.

Also milk, biscuits/crackers, etc.

in lieu of this, would anyone happen to have supplies of chlorine treatment (in liquid form or in tablets)?
that would be a big help, as a quick measure of purifying contaminated water

wow, good job guys (IMG:http://4x4ph.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)