Ondoy: The Katrina Of Asia ? (UPDATED)

Update: Reports now indicate that more than 500,000 people are homeless. Few people have insurance to pay for rebuilding. The death toll now is at 140 but is expected to climb.

A story that has not been getting a lot of play in the US media is that of Typhoon, now Tropical Storm Ondoy. The storm has already devastated Manila in the Philippines and is heading for mainland China.

The storm has dumped more rain in the Philippines than Katrina dumped on New Orleans and is expected to dump large amounts of water on heavily populated areas of China. In a 24 hour period it dropped 455 mm (18 inches) of rain. That is a LOT of rain.

The images showing up on Youtube are reportedly quite stunning. So far the death toll is around 100 but it is expected to climb quite significantly as the rescuers get to the destroyed areas.

We need to remember that not all suffering is in the USA.