LOS ANGELES - Philippine-Americans around the United States are collecting disaster relief for victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which has displaced more than 650,000 people in the Philippines. In Southern California, home to the largest Philippine-American community, the response has been particularly strong.
Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines' coastal city of Tacloban on Friday. As the U.S. military and international aid groups struggle to move supplies, Methodist Pastor Nestor Gerente of Grace United Methodist Church in Long Beach, California, collects online donations from Philippine-Americans.
He has relatives in hard-hit Samar province.
“I don't really get any information. That's why it's so frustrating, and it's a little bit torturing for me because not knowing is worse than knowing," said Gerente.
Gerente's church houses the Filipino Migrant Center, an immigrant advocacy group. It has now turned its efforts to disaster relief.
At the Filipino Christian Church in Los Angeles, Pastor Einstein Cabalteja is collecting household goods that will be sold to raise money for victims. He says some have lost everything.
“What they really need is very basic needs - water, food and shelter,” said Cabalteja.
As relief workers try to assess the extent of the destruction, Philippine-Americans worry about the future.
“I am more concerned about rebuilding, the rebuilding efforts, because it's going to take years for these communities to rise again from the rubblem” said Cabalteja.