Team Rubicon goes to the Philippines
I have long been a fan and a supporter of
Team Rubicon. They are a group of military veterans and medical professionals who go into disaster area to provide triage and emergency medical services. They formed on January 17th, 2010 in response to the horrible earthquake in Haiti and the dithering and delay of the traditional "relief" agencies. They have been serving ever since.
They are headed to the Philippines --
from their blog:
We�re Launching Operation: Seabird
We�re going up against one of the largest storms ever recorded � Super Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines Friday with massive force. Tomorrow, a team of 15 specially qualified TR volunteers from across the country along with three members from Making Change, a veterans-based relief organization in Norway, will board flights to Manila.
The primary objectives of Operation: Seabird are facilitating search and rescue efforts and providing medical triage for a full-scale field hospital in Tacloban. The field hospital can handle up to 100 patients at a time and will be managed by Mammoth Medical Missions, who�s standing up a surgical team of 17.
We�re in the process of outfitting volunteers with PPE and preparing packs so they remain self-sufficient for several days after arrival. The team will also be transporting medical response kits supplied by Direct Relief. We�ll continue to assemble intel gathered over the last 48 hours and adjust our strategy based on conditions reported from the ground.
This is TR�s first international mission since deploying to Burma to provide medical aid for ethnic Karen refugees in October 2012. Volunteers for Operation: Seabird were vetted and hand-selected based on a number of criteria, including medical and search & rescue certifications, past TR deployment history, and availability. We ask others to consider supporting our response and keep the people of the Philippine Islands in your thoughts as the death toll is feared to be very high.
Godspeed.
Posted by DaveH at November 10, 2013 4:32 PM