USCG Provides Tsunami Relief

A Coast Guard tsunami relief team of two C-130 aircraft and 42 people are in place today and beginning relief and hazard assessment efforts throughout Southeast Asia.

The team from across the U.S. rendezvoused in Honolulu and began their trip across the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, making two overnight stops in Guam and Japan.

The C-130s, operating from Paya Lumpar, Singapore, are providing logistical support. Weather conditions prohibited flights today, but the Coast Guard is working with local relief agencies and coordinators on the ground to distribute emergency supplies throughout the area.

The Coast Guard Pacific Area Strike Team has 11-members that arrived in Utapao and is addressing hazardous material spills in the communities devastated by the tsunami.

Over the next 48-hours, Coast Guard personnel will travel to Colombo, Sri Lanka to bring aid to the affected communities there.

In addition to the Pacific Area Strike Team, the tsunami relief team includes 28 flight-crew members, made up of seven-crewmembers from air stations: Barbers Point, Hawaii; Sacramento, Calif.; Elizabeth City, N.C., and Clearwater, Fla.; a surgeon, a public affairs specialist and a liaison officer. The Coast Guard forces are assigned to U.S. Joint Task Force 536, which is conducting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in South Asia.

The 378-foot Coast Guard Cutter Munro, homeported in Alameda, Calif., is traveling as part of the U.S. Navy's Expeditionary Strike Group 5 with the USS Bonhomme Richard, is departed on scene providing humanitarian assistance to areas affect by the Asian tsunami. Munro was enroute to the Persian Gulf before being diverted for disaster relief.