International News

US Pinoys Need Water

Consul General Mario De Leon yesterday said some Filipinos in Connecticut and Long Island were reported to be running low on potable water while many others in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut have no Internet, telephone, or mobile phone connectivity following the devastation caused by superstorm Sandy on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States last October 29.

As of press time, the Philippine embassy and the Philippine Consulate General in New York said they do not have the exact figures on the number of Filipinos directly affected by Sandy but they have received reports that some Filipinos were evacuated in Atlantic City, Jersey City, New Milford, and other areas in New Jersey as well as in City Island and Staten Island in New York due to floodwaters.

De Leon said reports from the leaders of the Filipino Community also indicate that a large number of Filipinos are among the 8.5 million people in 13 states who are currently without electricity.

He said there are also reports that several Filipinos sustained some damage to their homes in Nassau and Queens counties in New York as well as in Hamden and Stamford in Connecticut as a result of violent winds and storm surges.

Continue Reading

Inquirer Headline

‘Sandy’ batters East Coast

Flooded Ground Zero, New York

As Superstorm “Sandy” churned slowly inland, millions along the US East Coast awoke Tuesday without power or mass transit, and huge swaths of New York City were eerily quiet. At least 23 people were killed in seven states.

The storm that made landfall in New Jersey on Monday evening with hurricane force cut power to at least 7.4 million across the East and put the presidential campaign on hold just one week before Election Day.

New York was among the hardest hit, with its financial heart closed for a second day and seawater cascading into the still-gaping construction pit at the World Trade Center. The storm caused the worst damage in the 108-year history of New York’s subway system, and there was no indication of when the largest US transit system would be rolling again.

But the full extent of the damage in New Jersey was being revealed as morning arrived. Emergency crews fanned out to rescue hundreds.

A hoarse-voiced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gave bleak news at a morning news conference: Seaside rail lines washed away. No safe place on the state’s barrier islands for him to land. Parts of the coast still under water.

Continue Reading

Inquirer Headline

No Filipino casualty in Sandy’s sweep of Caribbean–envoy

There were no reported Filipino casualties during the deadly sweep of Hurricane Sandy across the Caribbean that claimed as many as 65 lives last week, the Philippine embassy in Washington said Tuesday.

An emailed statement from the embassy noted that Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia said that Filipino leaders in Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Jaimaca, Haiti, Turks, and Caicos, the Bahamas, Trinidad, and Tobago informed the embassy that all their members were accounted for.

As Americans braced for Hurricane Sandy, the Carribean suffered from death and destruction with officials saying storm-related death toll has risen to 69 as of Tuesday.

It had been reported that Haiti accounted for 51 of the deaths, while other deaths had also been reported in Cuba, Jaimaica, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.

Meanwhile, the embassy again urged Filipinos in the eastern seaboard of the US to heed warnings from authorities and stay out of the way of what is feared to be one of the most devastating storms to hit the country.

Continue Reading