Marines bring supplies for quake victims

[DoYouEverWonder]

5/30/06

BANTUL, Indonesia — Two U.S. military cargo planes landed Tuesday at the site of an earthquake in Indonesia that killed more than 5,400, bringing some of the first significant aid to reach the tens of thousands of survivors who were left homeless.

About 20 U.S. Marines arrived on the cargo planes in the historic city of Yogyakarta and unloaded heavy lifting machinery and a portable field hospital, as Malaysian, Chinese and Japanese rescue workers joined Indonesian teams providing medical care and emergency supplies to victims.

Most of the survivors of Saturday's 6.3-magnitude quake were living in improvised shacks near the ruins of their homes or in shelters erected in rice fields. Officials say about 200,000 people lost their homes.

However, conditions had improved in two hospitals in the quake zone, with no patients being treated outside or in the corridors Tuesday like there were until recently.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060530/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_earthquake;_ylt=A9FJqac4JXxEBD4AOQms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--


Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we are able to help so quickly, but why does it take only two days for the US to send help to a foreign country and after Katrina it took Bush almost a week?

[HeeBGBz]

1. Quicker response than Katrina. WTF?

Not saying we shouldn't give those folks some help, but still... That's on the other side of the planet and they got help in 3 days.

[Deja Q]

2. Doesn't Indonesia make electronic parts for us or something?

:shrug:

[noonwitch]

4. Yeah, but I like seeing our military do aid missions like this

They do it so well. It shows that the people in our military are not just trained killers, but that they are also trained in organizing relief efforts, too.

[HeeBGBz]

5. I agree that they need some positive PR

It's a good thing they can help these folks who need it. They need lots of help from all over. They'll need even more if that volcano blows. I just wish the help would have moved a little faster after Katrina.

[stanwyck]

6. Exactly! I wondered at the time

why our troops weren't immediately deployed to New Orleans to rescue people. I have a "training video" made of my son and other Marines showing them hanging on trip-lines from helicopters dropping into inflatable boats.
When Katrina happened, I wondered why we weren't sending teams of Marines - or other troops -- into Lousisiana and the other coast areas with these taxpayer paid for helicopters and boats.
And if the reason is "everything is in Iraq", then it shouldn't be. We paid for this stuff. It should be available for use here, also. Pay Halliburton a little less and make sure we have what we need here. And use our well-trained troops to help our people.

[MadMaddie]

12. My exact response....Americans should be outraged.

People thank that the Gulf Coast was an anomoly.....it's just the beginning....this administration cares more about other countries citizens than American citizens....

To the Freeper lurkers when it's your city that's destroyed and your administration leaves you hanging....will that finally convince you that they never cared about you....You will have to lose everything before you get it....pathetic....

I am proud of the Marine response....I am sure if they would have been ordered they would have helped rescue more victims in the Gulf...

[thereismore]

3. It's closer to Indonesia from Baghdad than to New Orleans from Baghdad. nt

[steely]

7. Didn't have FEMA to slow'em down?

But more on point, let's hear it for the marines.
I was hoping we were going to help the victims somehow.

[enigma000]

8. The quake zone isn't under water

New Orleans was. And you can't land a cargo plane in a lake.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. NOLA Airport was open

and the highway from the west going into NO was open all the way to the Superdome.

BS they couldn't get help into NO.

[Bridget Burke]

10. Delaying aid to Indonesia won't make a Democratic mayor &

A Democratic governor look bad.

I'm glad we sent the aid, but it doesn't make the delays after Katrina look any better.

[progressivebydesign]

11. This quake in a country battling Bird Flu, worries me.

I've not seen this addressed here at all.. but the latest deaths in a family who caught it from close proximity to each other, were in Indonesia. The govt there has refused to do any real work educating people about the risks, and have refused to cull infected flocks, because they say there's no money available to reimburse the poultry farmers. Now.. you add a major humanitarian crisis, which will include major sanitation and disease issues.. then I begin to become a bit worried.

If anyone has read my past posts about the bird flu, I've been quite the opposite of an alarmist... really nor worrying, until there is proof of mutation. But.. I do worry that a disaster in a country that is not effectively battling the flu threat, does give me pause.