Washington – President Obama says the United States is providing significant humanitarian assistance to the Philippines and is rushing additional relief supplies, equipment and aid in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.
Acting U.S. Ambassador Brian Goldbeck, the charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, issued an immediate disaster declaration and announced he was making available US$100,000 to provide health, water and sanitation support to the Philippines. The Embassy also said a humanitarian assistance survey team was flying to Manila to conduct a full need assessment. A U.S. Agency for international Development (USAID) disaster assistance and response team was preparing to conduct surveys across regions of the country struck by the storm.
About 90 U.S. Marines and sailors flew to the Philippines November 10 from Okinawa as part of an advance assessment team sent to begin providing relief and recovery support, the Pentagon said. The team has requested c-130 cargo planes, MV-22 Osprey Helicopters and other helicopter aircraft, and the navy has sent two P-3 Oriaon surveillance aircrafts.
AGES Aviation Center, Inc. provided full groundhandling service in MNL/RPLL to the US Marines C-130s, the U.S. Air Force C-17s as they did day and night round the clock Humanitarian flights to Tacloban.
AGES likewise became the Hub for the U.S. Marines Citation Ultra (UC-35) and Beachcraft King Air (C-12) as it did daily flights with key personnel – USAID, U.S. Embassy charged’ affaires, USMC Generals to the disaster stricken Tacloban and nearby provinces.
