L.A. Filipino Community Mobilizes for Typhoon Relief

Those efforts include a 5K Charity Walk in Van Nuys this morning, collections at most Filipino churches and an afternoon news conference where more information will be released.

The charity walk, which got underway at 6 a.m. and Woodley and Balboa Park, had been previously planned to help the Philippines continue to recover from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that killed 222 people on Oct. 15.

An estimated 10,000 are feared dead as a result of the typhoon, which unleashed 200-plus-mile-an-hour winds and wrought havoc in the central Philippines late Friday and early Saturday.

Experts say it is one of the most powerful storms ever recorded.

"I did see an overwhelming expression of support from our community, at least in Southern California," Hellen Barber De La Vega, consul general for the Philippines in Los Angeles told the Los Angeles Times. "In the last two days, with the images of what's happening in the Philippines, we have already received so many queries."

More than 330,000 Filipinos live in the Los Angeles area, one of the largest such communities in the United States.

The charity was co-sponsored by the Philippine Disaster Relief Organization, known as PeDRO and Renew Our Minds and Heart, known as ROMAH.

Monetary donations are being coordinated by the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles with information being updated regularly at its website: www.philippineconsulatela.org.

In Long Beach, the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, known as NAFCON, will hold a 12:30 p.m. press conference to draw support and raise donations.

De La Vega said many people are sending money directly to relatives and friends. Others are coordinating efforts through their local churches.