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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 1:20 p.m., Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Foundation announces $600,000 for quake aid

Advertiser Staff

The salesforce.com Foundation announced today that it has raised $600,000 for earthquake recovery assistance for the Big Island, offering a boost to the newly created Hawaii Island Earthquake Recovery Fund.

Half the donation will go to the new fund, while the other half has been earmarked for two Big Island entities and the American Red Cross:

i $50,000 will go to Kona Community Hospital to help with rebuilding and repairs;

i $50,000 will go to the North Kohala Community Resource Center to repair homes in the Kapa'au and Hawi communities;

i $200,000 will go to the American Red Cross.

The Red Cross is working to meet the emergency needs of those on the Big Island, including food, water, shelter and damage assessments. So far, assessments on 10,000 homes have found 40 destroyed, 217 with major damage and 617 with minor damage.

The Red Cross will also use some of the money to aid those in Kaupo on Maui who have been cut off by a bridge collapse and rockfalls due to the earthquake.

The new Hawaii Island Earthquake Recovery Fund will be administered by the Hawaii Community Foundation to help with longer-term rebuilding.

All of the donations will supplement $1.6 million in housing assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, some of which will be distributed today.

More information about the fund can be found at www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org.

To register for assistance, visit www.hawaiiredcross.org or www.fema.gov.