CG evacuates 160 Americans from Haiti - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

CG evacuates 160 Americans from Haiti

The Coast Guard has evacuated more than 160 Americans to the Dominican Republic in the last 24 hours using its C-130 Hercules planes in the wake of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, according to the State Department.

The Coast Guard, whose medium endurance cutter Forward launched the first rescue assets on the scene in the capital of Port-au-Prince, “has performed magnificently in helping the injured, particularly American citizens,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told NBC on Thursday morning.

The aircrew of a Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter medically evacuated four critically injured U.S. citizens from the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday morning and conducted a second medevac of five people Wednesday afternoon. The injured were transported to Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Two Coast Guard C-130s arrived Wednesday evening and began evacuating people en masse to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, according to Coast Guard officials.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley says diplomat Victoria DeLong died Tuesday, the first American identified among thousands of fatalities. She died when her home collapsed, the Associated Press reported.

The Coast Guard’s medium endurance cutter Mohawk arrived in Haitian waters Wednesday afternoon, followed by the medium endurance cutters Tahoma and Valiant, which arrived Thursday. The Tahoma is loaded with relief supplies for earthquake survivors.

Two other Coast Guard C-130s from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., are being loaded with supplies and equipment at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. Coast Guard aircraft are scheduled to airlift two Urban Search and Rescue Teams to Haiti. That trip is being coordinated through U.S. Southern Command, according to Coast Guard officials.

The 270-foot medium endurance cutter Forward arrived at about 8 a.m. Wednesday and together with a Maritime Intelligence Support Team, was able to assess some of the damage caused to the Port-au-Prince port. The port has had multiple oil and fuel spills as well as possible sewage spills, about one to one and a half miles from the coast, according to the Coast Guard. Service members also reported seeing multiple small fires along the shoreline and significant damage to or destruction of port infrastructure, including damage to the port’s container crane. Some of the cargo cranes are completely submerged, and shipping containers have fallen into the water.

“We continue to look at the port facility, which will be critical to be able to bring in … substantial amounts of aid,” Crowley said in a briefing Thursday afternoon. “And we’re trying to figure out a strategy for how to function in that port, whether large ships can dock or large ships can hover offshore, and you begin a process of ferrying goods from ship to shore.”

President Obama dispatched thousands of troops to help stabilize Haiti Thursday and promised $100 million or more in quick earthquake aid, putting the U.S. firmly at the head of a relief effort of historic proportions.

As many as 5,500 U.S. soldiers and Marines will be on the ground or on ships offshore by Monday, a Defense Department official said. More than a half-dozen ships were heading there Thursday or preparing to get under way, said spokesman Bryan Whitman. They included the carrier Carl Vinson, to arrive Friday, and the hospital ship Comfort, expected by Jan. 22.