L.A. Groups Mobilize Aid Efforts : Disaster: They seek to provide relief to quake victims--and information to kin in U.S.

By JOHN L. MITCHELL

Sept. 22, 1999 12 AM PT

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The photographs from Taiwan of toppled apartment buildings and twisted roads made Josie Wang, a manager of the Taiwan Business Bank in Los Angeles, cringe.

“Everybody is worried about their families,” said Wang, one of an estimated 250,000 first-generation immigrants from mainland China and Taiwan living in Los Angeles County. “No one slept good. We all wanted to find out what was going on. We wanted to help.”

Frustrated at their inability to get through by phone, many began searching the Internet and watching television for clues to the fate of relatives after Tuesday’s quake, which killed more than 1,700 people and left more than 100,000 others homeless.

By late Tuesday in Los Angeles, aid was being organized by churches, charities and social groups.

Officials from Operation USA, which has organized a relief effort to help the victims of last month’s earthquake in Turkey, announced plans to divert 35,000 pounds of medical supplies from that emergency to victims in Taiwan. The emergency medical supplies are being stored in a Wilmington warehouse.

“We are contacting the Taiwan government to get approval for shipping the supplies,” said Neil Frame, a spokesman for the Los Angeles-based relief organization. “We want to make sure that what we have is what they need.”

In the meantime, churches such as the Evangelical Formosan Church in El Monte have begun organizing relief funds.

“We are pooling our resources to find ways to help,” said Pastor Katong Gaw, who heads the 800-member church, which has 45 branches worldwide.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles set up a hotline to coordinate assistance and to help those seeking information about relatives and friends. The number is (213) 389-1215.

“This is one of the worst earthquakes to ever hit Taiwan,” said Jason C. Yuan, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. “We have been getting hundreds of calls from people offering help and from people looking to find out about relatives.”

Yuan said his office will set up a task force for those seeking emergency visas to return home, but he urged Taiwanese to refrain from rushing home while their homeland is dealing with the disaster.

“People should wait several days to see how things develop,” he said.

For many, the waiting is painful.

“I called yesterday in the early afternoon, then in the late afternoon and also in the evening,” said Richard Chan, a Huntington Beach resident who works at a Stanton printing business. “I will try again tonight. . . . It’s very difficult.”

Chan, who immigrated to the United States in 1965, said about half his family is still in Taiwan, mostly in the capital, Taipei, and in Keelung, a port at the northern end of the island. He reached one brother in Keelung, but there has been no other news.

How to Help

These aid agencies are among the many accepting contributions for assistance to victims of the earthquake in Taiwan.

American Jewish World Service

989 Avenue of the Americas

10th Floor

New York, NY 10018

Tel: (800) 889-7146

https://www.ajws.org

American Red Cross

International Response Fund

P.O. Box 37243

Washington, D.C. 20013