Heavy equipment manufacturer JCB is responding to the Filipino typhoon disaster by donating machines and generators worth more than $500,000 to assist in the aftermath of the catastrophe.
The company is sending three 3CX backhoe loaders to help clean-up operations following Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded on land and responsible for up to 2,500 casualties. In addition, JCB's Filipino dealer, Camec, is providing more than 120 JCB electrical generators.
The generators are already being used to power community buildings, including hospitals and local authority premises. The JCB backhoes will be deployed in clean-up operations in the province of Tacloban City.
JCB has a long history of helping countries affected by major natural disasters, and this is the second time the company has sent aid to the Philippines. In 2006, JCB sent a fleet of 3CX backhoe loaders after Typhoon Reming hit the Bicol region, destroying much of its infrastructure.
“The human suffering and scenes of devastation in the Philippines have been heart-rending, and I hope JCB’s contribution to the relief effort will help, in some small way, those who are bearing the brunt of this disaster," said JCB chairman Lord Bamford. "One of the main challenges facing rescue workers is clearing roads in the affected areas, and the JCB backhoe is exactly the right machine for removing debris.”
JCB's latest contribution follows a series of other JCB machinery donations in recent years to other parts of the world hit by natural disasters. In 2004, JCB donated machines worth more than $160 million to help in the aftermath of the Asian Tsunami, with JCB backhoes deployed to Thailand, southern India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. In 2008, six backhoe loaders worth more than $600,000 were donated to assist clean-up efforts in the aftermath of an earthquake in Sichuan province in China.
In 2009, the company donated an excavator and a backhoe loader worth $250,000 to help the disaster relief effort in the city of Padang following the earthquake that struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In 2010, JCB donated diggers worth $150,000 to help the disaster relief effort in Haiti following the devastating earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people.
With North American headquarters in Savannah, Ga., JCB has 22 plants on four continents: 11 in the United Kingdom, six in India and others in Brazil, the U.S., China, Germany, France, and employs more than 10,000 people worldwide.
