I read a headline tonight that said Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines over the weekend, is probably the strongest storm in recorded history and has killed around 10,000 people. I don’t have anything insightful to say about that, but I do want to make two comments.
1. If you can, please donate to one of the reputable organizations that are already working to help survivors. I have received email appeals from two that I know are effective and responsible: Doctors Without Borders and World Vision (the latter is a Christian organization).
2. I wrote a post last December after the Newtown, CT, school shooting that I think applies to this new devastation. Obviously, the situations are very different; my post was originally written in response to an evil human act, which is not the case with the typhoon. But I think the first paragraph and the last two paragraphs are especially applicable.
the Dr. Tess blog 
Correction: It turns out that the 10,000 figure is too high; actually around 3,900 people were killed. I may have misunderstood the original headline, which might have been saying that 10,000 people were affected. Or it’s possible that initial estimates were too high. This is still being called one of the strongest storms in history, and help is still needed.