December 9-14, 2004

U.S. lends a hand to flood victims in Quezon towns

	Between overcast skies and knee-deep mud U.S. Marines and Philippine soldiers (above and left) unload sacks of rice from a CH-46E helicopter in Infanta, Quezon on December 12 (USMC photos by Lance Cpl. Joel Abshier). The next day, servicemen of the two countries load another batch of relief goods at the former Clark Air Base in Central Luzon (photo below) for delivery to Quezon’s towns of Gen. Nakar and Real. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) assistance to the relief effort for typhoon and mudslide victims in Quezon Province has totaled more than half a million U.S. dollars as of December 9. The U.S. military provided significant logistical and medical support to the relief effort.

 

Floods and mudslides caused by a succession of typhoons tropical storms destroyed farms and residential areas of Infanta and the nearby towns of General Nakar and Real, Quezon. In two weeks of relief operations, U.S. Marines, sailors, airmen and soldiers delivered about 70,000 pounds of relief goods including food, water and materials for temporary shelters daily to the devastated villages. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Joel Abshier)

Related links:
-- U.S. Government provides additional assistance to emergency relief effort
-- U.S. Marines provide humanitarian relief to the Philippines
-- U.S. Choppers arrive at Villamor Air Base to assist in typhoon disaster relief efforts
-- U.S. increases humanitarian assistance to Philippine typhoon victims

 

Brig. Gen. Kenneth Glueck (right), Commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) and overall commander of the U.S. contingent for the relief operation in Quezon Province, joins U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone (middle) and Philippine Armed Forces Brig. Gen. Charles Hotchkiss (left), Commander of the 600 Airbase Wing, in a briefing on the relief operations before the group flies to Quezon Province on December 14. Several hundred Marines and sailors of the III MEB flew in from Okinawa on December 7 to participate in the relief operations. (Photos below:) Ambassador Ricciardone meets local officials in Quezon’s towns of General Nakar, Real and Infanta.

 

		Philippine soldiers help a U.S. Marine unload sacks of rice from a helicopter and bring them to the municipal building in Real, Quezon for distribution to the flood victims.

 

		Clockwise from top left: Relief goods for the Philippines are loaded into a KC-130 Hercules plane in the Marine Corps air base in Okinawa; U.S. Marines load repacked relief goods in a helicopter in the U.S. Embassy grounds in Manila; a U.S. Marine checks her radio equipment in Infanta; Infanta residents line up in school compound to receive medicine and relief supplies; and boys in Real town pose for picture with a U.S. Marine. (USMC photos)