Date: 2010-02-23
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I rise in support of H. Res. 1048. This resolution commends the efforts and honors the work of the men and women of USNS Comfort and the United States Navy in the immediate response to those affected by the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12. As you know. on Tuesday. January 12. a massive. 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti near the capital of PortauPrince. There is still no official estimate of death or destruction but the damage to buildings is extensive and the number of injured or dead is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. America is responding. and will continue to respond with immediate humanitarian assistance to help the people of this struggling island nation rebuild their livelihoods. I send my condolences to the people and government of Haiti as they grieve once again in the aftermath of a natural disaster. As Haitis neighbor. I believe it is the United States responsibility to help Haiti recover. and build the capacity to mitigate against future disasters. To date the United States Government has contributed over $402 million in earthquake response funding for Haiti. It has also deployed approximately 17.000 military personnel in support of the relief effort. Subsequently. as part of the new Government of Haitiled effort. the U.N. World Food Program will provide commodities. nongovernmental organizations will manage distributions. and the U.S. military will provide security escorts. American and her allies have already initiated a comprehensive. interagency response to the earthquake. The State Department. Department of Defense. Department of Homeland Security. Coast Guard. USAIDall worked overnight to ensure critical resources were positioned to support the response and recovery effort. including efforts to find and assist American citizens in Haiti. Within days of last weeks devastating earthquake. U.S. Southern Command deployed a team of 30 people to Haiti to support U.S. relief efforts in the aftermath of one of the largest natural disasters in the western hemisphere. The team included U.S. military engineers. operational planners. and a command and control group and communication specialists arriving on two C130 Hercules aircraft. Since. there has been a tremendous interagency response with support and partnering with U.S. Embassy personnel as well as Haitian. United Nations and international officials to assess the situation and facilitate followon U.S. military support. Within hours of the earthquake. the United States mobilized a multiagency response that included our armed forces and civil service. With their hospitals reduced to rubble. PortauPrince was unable to treat the hundreds of thousands of injured people seeking help. In response. the U.S. efforts included the hospital ship USNS Comfort as well as naval helicopter ships such as the USS Carl Vinson. Arriving on station less than 72 hours after the quake. Carl Vinson immediately rendered assistance. Over two weeks. Vinson and its embarked 19 helicopters flew more than 2.200 sorties. delivering more than 166 tons of food. 89.000 gallons of water and 38.700 pounds of medical supplies to earthquake victims. Additionally. Vinsons helicopters conducted 476 medical evacuations. MEDEVACs. and the ships doctors and corpsmen treated 60 patients in its medical ward.