VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A humanitarian organization founded in Virginia Beach is deploying its international relief team in light of Taiwan’s magnitude 7.4 earthquake.
The earthquake has killed at least nine people thus far and injured hundreds more, a release states.
The Operation Blessing team is led by John Tan, regional director for CBN Asia and managing trustee for Operation Blessing Foundation Philippines.
Based in Makati in the Philippines, Tan and his team will depart for Taiwan and meet with local partners to determine the greatest area of need.
“State media is reporting that multiple power generation plants were temporarily tripped by the earthquake, with roughly 87,000 households still without power,” Tan said. “We expect the immediate needs to be food, water and hygiene kits. Once the electricity is restored, then we can focus on helping residents whose homes were damaged to recover items, clear debris and begin to rebuild what’s been lost.”
Chief Operating Officer Drew Friedrich said there’s great need for both the spiritual and the material.
“Prayer and money are the two things we feel like are really critical in times like this,” he said.
The quake hit Wednesday morning in an island country about one-third the size of Virginia. Strong building codes likely saved lives, but at least 10 people are dead, about 40 missing, and hundreds are trapped in buildings.
Friedrich explained why the aftermath of an earthquake — and the measure of the victims’ need — is harder to peg than the wake of a tornado or a hurricane.
“In a tornado, it’s clear right away what the damage is,” he said. “With a hurricane, you might have some water damage that lasts for a while and maybe some mold issues that we can kind of help remediate. But in an earthquake, some of that stuff is kind of unseen, and you don’t quite know what all the damage is.”
Operation Blessing responded last year after the earthquake in Turkey, where its workers remained for several months providing food.
