CG continues evacuations, clears port - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

CG continues evacuations, clears port

The Coast Guard has evacuated 662 Americans from Haiti as of Monday, less than a week after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti.

Although doing medevacs and ferrying Americans out of the danger zone is a top priority, the Coast Guard has another important task — restoring the ports of Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien. The ports are littered with submerged cranes and shipping containers, preventing ships loaded with medical supplies, food and personnel from being unloaded.

“Everyone realizes that it is of critical importance to get relief back in,” said Cmdr. Mike Glander, the commanding officer of the buoy tender Oak, which arrived Sunday evening in Port-au-Prince.

On Monday, the Oak used one of the few small usable piers to unload 62,880 bottles of water and medical supplies, such as IVs, splints and medicine. The Oak will assist a Catholic Relief Services barge Tuesday to unload supplies at the same fragile pier.

“We will be working very slowly and carefully, one container at a time,” Glander said. “It’s going to be a very slow operation.”

In addition to the Oak, the Coast Guard has deployed four cutters and a number of helicopters and planes to respond since the quake hit Jan. 12. The medium-endurance cutters Tahoma and Mohawk, along with the Haitian coast guard, were able to escort the 270-foot barge Crimson Clover to port Sunday to deliver food supplies. Tahoma conducted soundings of the sea bottom along the south pier in Port-au-Prince harbor to prepare for the delivery to Catholic Relief Services.

An 11-person specialized seaport operations team aboard the Oak is concentrating on assessing the damage to the port.

The Oak is equipped with a crane that normally lifts and repositions buoys, which was one of the boat’s main tasks on Monday. The Oak’s crane, which can lift 20 tons, also will be used to clean smaller debris from the harbor. The Military Sealift Command salvage and rescue ship Grasp with an embarked FBI dive team will play a key role in cleaning up the cranes and shipping containers clogging up the harbor until the U.S. Maritime Administration can send five auxiliary ships to assemble a floating port, Glander said.

Two crane ships, a special causeway and barge-handling ship, a specialized oil-delivery ship and a high-speed ferry eventually will join the armada of Navy, Coast Guard and Military Sealift Command vessels on station or converging on Haiti.

This isn’t the first time the Oak has been to Haiti — it normally visits twice a year to assist the Haitian coast guard with repositioning buoys and aids to navigation, and with training in CPR, first aid, small arms and boat maintenance. Despite earlier reports, the Haitian coast guard did not suffer any casualties, although it did sustain damage to its facilities, Glander said.

Crews from the cutters Tahoma and Mohawk are working to rebuild the Killick Haitian coast guard base, which was damaged. The base also has been set up as a makeshift medical facility where personnel are treating and assisting Haitian survivors.

Glander said the 50-person crew on the Oak also is assisting doctors and nurses at the clinic.

The Coast Guard has medically transported 29 critically injured U.S. Embassy personnel out of the country, according to the rescue service. The Coast Guard also has delivered 512 urban search and rescue team members to Port-au-Prince.

More coverage on the relief effort in Haiti