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The Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus has sent an emergency donation of $50,000 to the Philippines to help in efforts to recover from record flooding caused by Tropical Storm Ketsana (known locally as Typhoon Ondoy).
At least 140 people died in flooding in the capital of Manila, where more than 80 percent of the city was under water at the height of the storm, which affected 27 provinces in seven regions of the country. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, and are without electricity or clean drinking water.
 State and local councils are encouraged to contribute money for Philippine disaster relief as well. The Supreme Council will forward the funds to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), which is coordinating Catholic relief efforts. There are more than 250,000 Knights in the Philippines, nearly all of whom have been adversely affected by the flooding.
The president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, issued a statement Sept. 29 that expressed his “profound gratitude to the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council and the U.S. Bishops’ Conference - Catholic Relief Services. They were among the first to respond.”
A Very Personal Story of the storm’s impact along with his most recent blog Report from the Flood comes from Supreme Council staffer Brian Caulfield, whose wife’s family lives in Manila.
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