Northwest teams prepare to launch aid efforts

Within hours of Sunday's massive earthquake and tsunami in Southeast Asia, Northwest relief agencies launched what may become their biggest disaster response ever.

Northwest Medical Teams alerted doctors and nurses throughout the region that volunteer help is urgently needed and quickly packed emergency medical supplies to be shipped from its Portland office, said the agency's vice president, Soozi Redkey.

"We hope to be there within 48 hours," she said Sunday afternoon. "One of the things that typically falls first is medical infrastructure."

Although the Portland-based organization draws volunteers from around the country, most come from the Seattle area -- especially from Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center and Northwest Hospital, Redkey said.

World Vision, a global agency with its U.S. headquarters in Federal Way, mobilized thousands of aid workers already stationed throughout Asia, spokesman Dean Owen said.

"Our staff in various parts of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have been providing survivors with food, water and, I believe, temporary shelter," Owen said.

On Monday, World Vision will ask the Indonesian government for authorization to provide help there, he said.

Besides supplying clean water, tents and high-energy food, the agency also expects to provide blankets, cooking utensils, communications and computer assistance, as well as help with rebuilding roads, hospitals and other destroyed public infrastructure, Owen said.

"It well could be the largest disaster response we've ever mobilized," he said. "This will take tens of millions of dollars, and months -- if not years -- in our long-term response."

Aid workers from Portland-based Mercy Corps are also on their way to parts of Southeast Asia.

The agency will try to provide emergency food supplies, medicine and temporary shelter for the homeless.

Mercy Corps currently has field offices in Southeast Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia and Padang, Sumatra.

Local corporations also may pitch in.

"I am monitoring the situation," said Akhtar Badshah, who heads Microsoft Corp.'s philanthropic efforts as director of worldwide community affairs. "I believe there will be an effort under way once we know what the damage is."

Badshah and the region's expatriate Indian community kicked into action in 2001 after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck the Indian region of Gujaratis, killing 20,800 people.

Badshah, who then ran a Seattle-based non-profit called Digital Partners, helped raise close to $1 million from Indian Americans and others in the Seattle area. Most of the money, he said, went to charities such as CARE, which already had extensive networks in the country.

Now, Badshah -- who emigrated from Bombay 23 years ago -- expects to launch a similar fund-raising effort to aid victims of yesterday's disaster.

Badshah was in Indonesia just two weeks ago for a project in the Aceh province, close to the epicenter of Sunday's quake.

"You're talking about a region that is incredibly populous, very poor and without adequate infrastructure," he said.

"Of course, the casualties will increase dramatically because of this. It's just devastating."

HOW TO HELP

To find out how to donate to World Vision, visit www.worldvision.org or call 888-562-4453.

To find out about supporting Northwest Medical Teams, call 800-959-4325 or visit www.nwmedicalteams.org.

To make a donation to Mercy Corps, go to www.mercycorps.org.

Also accepting donations is Seattle-based World Concerns, which plans to provide water, sanitation and shelter in Thailand. Visit www.worldconcern.org.

This report includes information from The Associated Press.

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