WASHINGTON: The United States has increased to more than $37 million its funding for emergency relief in areas of the Philippines affected by Typhoon Haiyan locally known as Yolanda.
The US originally committed $20 million in relief after the November 8 typhoon, reaching thousands of families with plastic sheeting for homes and essential commodities.
International donors also have increased their assistance.
As of November 18, those donors had pledged more than $182 million to help people affected by the typhoon, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said.
This is the fifth time since 2009 that USAID has been called to respond to a major typhoon in the Philippines, according to Jeremy Konyndyk, the agency's director of foreign disaster assistance.
Konyndyk said preparedness and quick action were critical to the US response to the most recent crisis.
The agency was able to despatch an advance disaster response team to Manila because USAID's weather experts helped predict the storm's approach.
The team reached there within 24 hours of the storm's passage through the centre of the country. (QNA)
