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May 12, 2008 By Patrick Winn, Staff writer
An Air Force quick-response task force delivered its first C-130 cargo jet full of supplies Monday to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, where up to 2 million face disease and starvation.
About 50 airmen from the 36th Contingency Response Group, deployed out of Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base, have set up a relief operation at an air base near Bangkok.
The C-130 carried 28,000 pounds of supplies — including mosquito nets, blankets and water as part of a joint-service operation dubbed “Joint Task Force Caring Response.”
The 36th response group, created to speedily deploy to Pacific-region disasters such as the 2004 Southeast Asian Tsunami, has also placed other aircraft and personnel on standby: a C-130 and its crew from Yokota Air Base in Japan and a C-17 Globemaster III from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.
The Air Force teams, if given Myanmar’s permission, could set up a makeshift landing operation much closer to the hardest-hit region.
Additionally, six C-130s and more than 100 airmen who happen to be in the region for “Cobra Gold” — an annual multi-national military exercise in Thailand — could be diverted to the help relief efforts if requested.
U.S. Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Douglas Powell said there are 11,000 service members and four ships in the region that could be harnessed to help the mercy mission.
The initial C-130 jet flew from Utapao Air Base, a bomber base for the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. The relief flight capped prolonged negotiations to persuade Myanmar’s military government to accept U.S. help.
United Nations leaders have urged reclusive Myanmar — formerly known as Burma — to open its doors to foreign relief efforts.
Several Myanmar Cabinet ministers, military officers and the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, Shari Villarosa, greeted the plane.
Government spokesman Ye Htut said the aid, which was transferred to Myanmar army trucks, would be ferried by air force helicopters to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta later Monday. Two more U.S. air shipments were scheduled to land Tuesday.
The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis, which hit May 3, is 28,458, with another 33,416 still missing. But the U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Catherine Bragg and others have said the death toll could reach 100,000 or higher.
Though international assistance has started trickling in, the authoritarian government has barred most foreigners who are experienced in managing humanitarian crises.
Richard Horsey, a spokesman for U.N. humanitarian operations, in Bangkok, said clean drinking water, shelter, medical support and food were sorely lacking.
“The authorities of the country need to open up to an international relief effort. There aren’t enough boats, trucks, helicopters in the country to run the relief effort of the scale we need,” he said. “It’s urgent that the authorities do open themselves up.”
Also on the plane was Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the commander of the U.S. military in the Pacific, who will try to personally negotiate with the junta for a larger U.S. role in providing relief.
Three Navy ships in the Bay of Bengal were sailing closer to Myanmar on Monday, ready to aid cyclone victims if they are given permission, Vice Adm. Doug Crowder told reporters in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In the Irrawaddy delta, people were surviving in miserable conditions — hundreds cramped in monasteries with little access to food. Others camped in the open, drinking dirty water contaminated by human feces or dead bodies and animal carcasses.
“The lives of thousands of cyclone survivors are at extreme risk,” aid group World Vision said. “Displaced people are living in appalling conditions in makeshift shelters and camps where overcrowding and unsanitary conditions are prevalent.”
Children — many of them orphans — are suffering from fever, diarrhea and respiratory infections, it said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
May 12, 2008 By Patrick Winn, Staff writer
An Air Force quick-response task force delivered its first C-130 cargo jet full of supplies Monday to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, where up to 2 million face disease and starvation.
About 50 airmen from the 36th Contingency Response Group, deployed out of Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base, have set up a relief operation at an air base near Bangkok.
The C-130 carried 28,000 pounds of supplies — including mosquito nets, blankets and water as part of a joint-service operation dubbed “Joint Task Force Caring Response.”
The 36th response group, created to speedily deploy to Pacific-region disasters such as the 2004 Southeast Asian Tsunami, has also placed other aircraft and personnel on standby: a C-130 and its crew from Yokota Air Base in Japan and a C-17 Globemaster III from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.
The Air Force teams, if given Myanmar’s permission, could set up a makeshift landing operation much closer to the hardest-hit region.
Additionally, six C-130s and more than 100 airmen who happen to be in the region for “Cobra Gold” — an annual multi-national military exercise in Thailand — could be diverted to the help relief efforts if requested.
U.S. Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Douglas Powell said there are 11,000 service members and four ships in the region that could be harnessed to help the mercy mission.
The initial C-130 jet flew from Utapao Air Base, a bomber base for the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. The relief flight capped prolonged negotiations to persuade Myanmar’s military government to accept U.S. help.
United Nations leaders have urged reclusive Myanmar — formerly known as Burma — to open its doors to foreign relief efforts.
Several Myanmar Cabinet ministers, military officers and the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, Shari Villarosa, greeted the plane.
Government spokesman Ye Htut said the aid, which was transferred to Myanmar army trucks, would be ferried by air force helicopters to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta later Monday. Two more U.S. air shipments were scheduled to land Tuesday.
The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis, which hit May 3, is 28,458, with another 33,416 still missing. But the U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Catherine Bragg and others have said the death toll could reach 100,000 or higher.
Though international assistance has started trickling in, the authoritarian government has barred most foreigners who are experienced in managing humanitarian crises.
Richard Horsey, a spokesman for U.N. humanitarian operations, in Bangkok, said clean drinking water, shelter, medical support and food were sorely lacking.
“The authorities of the country need to open up to an international relief effort. There aren’t enough boats, trucks, helicopters in the country to run the relief effort of the scale we need,” he said. “It’s urgent that the authorities do open themselves up.”
Also on the plane was Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the commander of the U.S. military in the Pacific, who will try to personally negotiate with the junta for a larger U.S. role in providing relief.
Three Navy ships in the Bay of Bengal were sailing closer to Myanmar on Monday, ready to aid cyclone victims if they are given permission, Vice Adm. Doug Crowder told reporters in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In the Irrawaddy delta, people were surviving in miserable conditions — hundreds cramped in monasteries with little access to food. Others camped in the open, drinking dirty water contaminated by human feces or dead bodies and animal carcasses.
“The lives of thousands of cyclone survivors are at extreme risk,” aid group World Vision said. “Displaced people are living in appalling conditions in makeshift shelters and camps where overcrowding and unsanitary conditions are prevalent.”
Children — many of them orphans — are suffering from fever, diarrhea and respiratory infections, it said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.