President Barack Obama said, “My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by this earthquake. We are closely monitoring the situation and we stand ready to assist the people of Haiti.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “The United States is offering our full assistance to Haiti and to others in the region. We will be providing both civilian and military disaster relief and humanitarian assistance and our prayers are with the people who have suffered, their families and their loved ones.”
USNS Comfort, which is in preparations to deploy to Haiti Immediately after the earthquake, Clinton said the United States would provide civilian and military disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to Haiti. USAID is sending a disaster assistance response team to Haiti. The Fairfax County, Virginia Urban Search and Rescue Team and the Los Angeles County Search and Rescue Team were dispatched to Port-au-Prince.
The U.S. military support, according to General Douglas Fraser, head of U.S. Southern Command, includes plans to deploy 2,000 Marines to assist the U.N. in peacekeeping in the event of unrest caused by the disaster and Air Force personnel to provide air traffic control capabilities for the Port-au-Prince airport. Several U.S. Coast Guard ships were dispatched to Haiti, including Valiant, Forward, Mohawk, and Tahoma, as well as a C-130 Hercules from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater.
The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort was deployed to Haiti, as were the frigate USS Underwood, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, and two dock landing ships (Fort McHenry and Carter Hall). All U.S. Navy ships on the East coast of the United States have been put on standby, and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (which has been preparing for a scheduled deployment) is awaiting word on whether they will be diverted to the relief effort.
Four injured personnel from the United States embassy were evacuated to the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by US Coast Guard helicopters.
Related article:
2010 Haiti Earthquake
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