A Pitt Meadows family is rallying to help people in the Philippines devastated by floods and landslides as another typhoon bears down on the country.

Arlene Lagerstrom, her husband Lance Verzosa and their children Karl, 12 and Kristen, 9 hope to stuff a container full of much-needed supplies to ship to cities and villages battered in her former home.

“It’s the very least we could do,” said Lagerstrom, who moved to Vancouver from Manila when she was 20.

Last month, tropical storm Ketsana triggered the worst flooding in Manila in more than 40 years, and typhoon Parma early this month caused deadly landslides across the country.

The two storms killed 929 and flooded the homes of more than seven million people.

Mirinae, a Category 2 typhoon with maximum centre winds of 150 km/h and gusts of up to 185 km/h, was expected to make landfall late Friday.

Lagerstrom has family in Manila whose homes were submerged in the flooding that followed the storms.

“It’s going to take four months for the water to subside and to clean it up,” she says.

Although she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, Lagerstrom considers herself and her family lucky.

“I am still here a year later. I was given a chance to fight. Those people woke up one day and everything they had was gone. They have nothing,” she said.

LBC Cargo will ship the donations collected in Pitt Meadows for free to the Philippines.

Donations

Donations of clothing, non-perishable food items, toiletries, blankets and small household items can be dropped off at Bayanihan Pinoy Foodmart on Harris Road in Pitt Meadows. For more information, contact Arlene Lagerstrom at arlhene11@hotmail.com or 604-465-7649.