Source: ABC

Territory emergency staff to aid Typhoon effort

Updated Mon 11 Nov 2013, 5:51pm AEDT

A team of Northern Territory medical and emergency workers trained in disaster relief are preparing to travel to Tacloban City in the Philippines with a portable hospital and supplies following typhoon Haiyan.

In Tacloban 10,000 people are reported dead and thousands more are injured.

The 36 workers – who are part of the Darwin-based National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre – will leave Darwin within 24 hours.

The Centre’s head, Dr Len Notaras, said the team will treat thousands of people injured in the typhoon, and their operation will be fully self sustained.

“They’ll go up there for a minimum of two weeks to start with,” Dr Notaras said.

“They’ll have a sixty bed, fully deployable hospital, which is air conditioned, its own generators, its own power sources, and fuel, and as well as that they’ll have their own sleeping quarters, their own food and so on.”

Dr Notaras said it is expected the team will treat up to three and a half thousand people in the first two weeks.

“It will be a confronting scene but by the same token these are highly trained individuals who are well equipped to respond to events such as this and will be, as soon as they touch down, able to provide assistance to the people of the Philippines.”

The Federal Government has approved a $10 million dollar humanitarian assistance package to the Philippines.

The Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles said his Government will also donate $10,000 to the relief effort.