I was born and raised in the Philippines and as I watched the news last week I desperately wanted to book the next flight to Manila: On September 26th, Typhoon Ketsana, locally known as Ondoy, hit the Philippines with one month’s worth of rain condensed into six hours. 80% of Metro Manila, the country’s capital and major urban residential district, was underwater. I couldn’t reach my family at all–they had no electricity, no Internet and no cellphone connections. For information...