U.S. military to help deliver relief supplies
KATHMANDU, Nepal — A week after a massive earthquake leveled many areas of Nepal, the U.S. military is sending up to 500 troops, plus aircraft and equipment, to help deliver aid that has been stuck at the tiny country’s main airport.
The assistance has been pouring in from around the world but has been slow to reach victims in Kathmandu, the capital, as well as smaller towns and villages.
The magnitude 7.8 quake that struck April 25 killed more than 7,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, many stranded in remote areas, some of which have yet to receive help. The death toll is expected to climb even as searchand-rescue operations begin to wind down this week, a Nepal army official said.
The expanded U.S. military involvement will relieve the backlog of earthquake aid that has piled up at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, and bring relief shipments to distribution points across the country, officials said.
Officials said the response mirrors the relief operation carried out in 2005 in Pakistan after an earthquake that killed 86,000 people. Nepal’s high-altitude, mountainous terrain, most of it inaccessible by road, is similar to that of the quake-affected areas of Pakistan.
Among the first U.S. aircraft to arrive, perhaps on Sunday, will be four vertical-takeoff Osprey that will be joined by Army Chinook helicopters and C-130 cargo planes, said Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, commander of the operation.
U.S. forces will also be bringing in forklifts to better manage the shipments at the airport, which has only one run- way and has been severely congested in the week since the quake.
Already, 25 U.S. service members have created an operations center in a second-story yoga studio on U.S. Embassy-owned grounds in Kathmandu. Scores of military personnel will be housed in tents and at forward staging bases around the country. Some of those sites are operated by the Nepalese military, which has long had close ties to U.S. forces.
“This wasn’t an unknown that this earthquake would happen. We’ve been preparing for it and planning for it,” said Bill Berger, head of disaster response for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is leading the American effort.
The operation has added urgency because of the coming monsoon season, when remote areas become even less accessible, said Berger.
U.S. officials obtained permission Saturday from Nepalese civil aviation authorities to help the country’s air traffic controllers manage the flights. Among the Air Force personnel deployed are airfield specialists who will work closely with local air traffic staff.
Air Force Lt. Col. Glenn Rineheart commands the Guam-based 36th Mobility Response Squadron that will be speeding the movement of supplies at the airport.
“The question is how do we get the aid to the people who need it the most? There’s a lot of cargo that’s just being taken off the plane and it starts piling up,” said Rineheart.
The United Nations has said that 8 million of Nepal’s 28 million people were affected by the quake. At least 2 million are expected to need tents, water, food and medicine during the next three months.