Typhoon Haiyan Disaster in the Philippines

joshuatree said:

China’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the Chinese military will deploy a medical-relief ship to aid in humanitarian efforts in the Philippines, and that it will soon deploy an initial batch of relief workers to the country following a green light from Manila.

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By Greg Torode | Reuters

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China is sending a state-of-the-art hospital ship to the Philippines following foreign and domestic criticism that it was slow and less than generous in its response to one of the world's biggest typhoons, which killed at least 4,000 people.

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing confirmed on Tuesday the deployment of the 14,000-tonne "Peace Ark" as state television reported the arrival of the first batch of Chinese relief supplies in the Philippines.

Exactly where the Ark will operate and when it will arrive have not yet been confirmed, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Ark would set sail as soon as possible.

"China has always been concerned about the Philippines typhoon disaster," he said. "In the spirit of helping the dying and healing the injured, we plan to send rescue workers to the disaster area."

Tension between China and the Philippines had risen in recent months over disputed claims in the South China Sea, with Manila taking Beijing to a United Nations court to challenge its historic claim to much of the strategic waterway.

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GCaptain said:

HONG KONG, Nov 20 (Reuters) – China is sending a state-of-the-art hospital ship to the Philippines following criticism that it was slow and stingy in its response to one of the world’s biggest typhoons, which killed at least 4,000 people.

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing confirmed on Tuesday the deployment of the 14,000-tonne “Peace Ark” as state television reported the arrival of the first batch of Chinese relief supplies in the Philippines.

The Ark’s exact area of operations and time of arrival have not been confirmed, but spokesman Hong Lei said it would set sail on Thursday.

“We hope that this action can alleviate the current situation in the Philippines, which is lacking doctors and medicine, and reflect the Chinese people’s friendly feelings for the people of the Philippines,” Hong said.

China’s emergency medical rescue team of 51 people leaves on Wednesday, Hong said, adding that the Red Cross Society of China was sending two batches of international rescue teams, with a first group of 16 having already left and a second group of 14 set to leave on Friday.

“China has always been concerned about the Philippines typhoon disaster,” Hong said in an earlier statement.

Tension between China and the Philippines has risen in recent months over disputed claims in the South China Sea, with Manila taking Beijing to a United Nations court to challenge its historic claim to much of the strategic waterway.

China’s usually hawkish Global Times, a tabloid owned by the government mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, last week urged the deployment of the Ark amid criticism of Beijing’s response by foreign commentators.

Armed forces and aid agencies are struggling to get help to devastated areas in the Philippines, where the typhoon has left more than four million people homeless.

The Ark will join an international flotilla of naval ships now delivering food, water and medicine to victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which tore across the central Philippine on Nov. 8, smashing just about everything in its path.

The ship, outfitted with 300 hospital beds, eight operating theatres and a medical staff of 100, recently returned to Shanghai after an unprecedented four-month deployment to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, where treated thousands of patients at several goodwill stops.

A Chinese cargo plane carrying tents and blankets landed in the central Philippine city of Cebu on Tuesday, broadcaster CCTV said.

“The Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development head has said the Chinese relief goods are very useful,” Chinese embassy official Wu Zhenping told the station.

“They will distribute some goods to evacuated victims in Cebu and the rest to victims in the worst-hit area, Tacloban.”

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GCaptain said:

Besides obliterating entire villages, killing thousands, and otherwise creating an incredible mess of the Philippines, Super Typhoon Haiyan and its resulting storm surge wreaked havoc to a large swath of area that cannot be seen by any photo in any newspaper.

It literally changed the profile of the sea floor.

Had the U.S. Navy not taken this into account, their relief effort involving vessels serving as launch points for the airborne assault of medical supplies, food, water and other aid may have been hampered by those vessels running aground on sand bars or other obstacles on their now obsolete chart data.

Enter the Military Sealift Command-operated USNS Bowditch (T-AGS 62), a U.S. Navy vessel purposely built to survey the seafloor, and one of the first vessels on scene in the Philippines. This ship was actually anchored in the Philippines immediately before the storm hit and had sortied in advance.

Bob Freeman from the Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy notes in a Navy press statement that the Bowditch “began immediately surveying the approaches to San Pedro Bay to ensure naval relief efforts were conducted safely, and Navy ships could get as close to land as possible.” The ship was tasked to survey from the 200 meter depth line in towards the shore of San Pedro Bay.

“We performed similar roles in the 2004 Banda Aceh tsunami and the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti,” explained Chris Kent, deputy operations officer for the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. “In both cases, Navy survey ships and aircraft went in first to chart the approaches.”

Freeman continues:

Bowditch is one of six Pathfinder-class ships with an all civilian crew of professional mariners and scientific support personnel. With a 329 foot length and a 58 foot beam, the ship displaces 4,762 tons.

In a recent interview with the Navy’s CHIPS magazine, Rear Adm. Brian Brown, commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, described the survey ship capabilities. “These ships have modern full ocean depth multi-beam and single-beam sonar systems for accurately measuring bottom depths and features, towed side-scan sonar systems for acoustic imaging of bottom features and navigation hazards, ocean current profilers, sub-bottom profilers for measuring stratification of seabed sediments, and over-the-side devices that collect physical ocean parameters such as temperature and salinity with depth.”

Bowditch also carries two 34 foot long hydrographic survey launch for shallow water surveys. Complemented with wide-beam echo sounders and side-scan sonar, these boats will be essential for preparing the approach for the amphibious ships that will bring the Marines ashore.

“The Navy’s survey ships are a little-known but critical asset for the Navy,” said Rear Adm. Jonathan White, Oceanographer of the Navy and resource sponsor for the survey ships. “Their work contributes to the creation of accurate navigation charts in all the world’s oceans, and helps ensure safety of navigation. They have no home ports and are continuously deployed around the world, stopping only for necessary maintenance work. They are truly a national asset.”

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Jeff Head said:

Another report. Glad to see them doing this. IMHO, they should have done this immediately so that their own motives would not be questioned and so they could have made it a very positive statement.

As it is, it is a good thing and the people being helped will not care a whit about all of the politics and drama preceding its arrival.

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The crew of the USS George Washington cut their liberty short in Hong Kong to steam towards the Philippines when the extent of the damage wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan became clear.
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Since the ship arrived at the island last week, the aircraft carrier’s crew of 5,000 – residents of a decent-sized town as tall as a 24-story building – have been supporting relief operations here.

The ship is powered by two nuclear reactors, which means that it can steam for 20 years before it needs to refuel. When it’s under way, the crew serves up 18,000-plus meals a day.

Pilots flying the Seahawk helicopters here estimate that they are doing two to three times the amount of flying that they normally would as they ferry supplies and casualties around the hardest-hit islands here.

Throughout the day, the carrier group’s aircraft come and go on a flight deck the length of three football fields.

Before it embarked, the crew flew some of its airplanes off the ship to make room for more helicopters, which are better suited than planes for this kind of relief effort.

Then they streamlined the aircraft. Some of the Seahawks are normally used for antisubmarine warfare, but the crew removed the helicopters’ sonar to make more space for supplies and for rescuing people.

It was space desperately needed in the early days of the relief effort, when Lt. Justin Pickworth, a Seahawk pilot, recalls encountering a tiny island half the size of his aircraft carrier deck his first day flying off the coast of eastern Samar. Nearly 300 people were desperate for food and water, and some needed evacuation.

Unable to land, his crew used hoists to pull people up into the safety of the helicopter. They lowered jugs of water and food the same way.

Now the relief effort has grown and expanded, with air traffic around the island so crowded that E-2C Hawkeyes – which look like planes with satellite dishes on their backs – orbit overhead to help deconflict air traffic.

The next stage of the mission is to resupply some of the smaller islands, says Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who commands the US 7th Fleet, which includes the USS George Washington.

At the same time, more 7th Fleet ships moved into the region this week, bringing with them bulldozers, backhoes, and dump trucks.

“You want to use the ground for supplies as much as possible,” Montgomery says, since big trucks have more capacity than, say, helicopters.

All of this cooperation stands in sharp contrast to the days of the Philippine-American war of 1899, when the Samar insurgency was so fierce that surviving US Marines were lauded by their comrades for the rest of their careers.

Upon their entry into a mess hall, fellow troops would salute them with the toast, “Stand, Gentlemen. He served on Samar!” says Brian Linn, a historian at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Decades later, the US Navy fought and won some of its fiercest battles of World War II in these waters. “This area,” notes Montgomery, “means a lot to the US Navy.”

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AssassinsMace said:

There's a spin of attacking China to cover-up and distract from the Filipino government corruption and ineptness in disaster relief? That has been pretty much the method of operation from Aquino. Take a look how they've spent time attacking CNN's Anderson Cooper over his coverage. Filipinos have been making it out that China is at fault for this hurricane like they're a victim some how of China.

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MwRYum said:

And you sound surprised...why?

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