The U.S. Navy has prepared a naval task force to assist countries impacted by Hurricane Matthew. The aircraft carrier George Washington, amphibious transport Mesa Verde, and hospital ship Comfort could provide food, water, and medical care to tens of thousands in the path of the Hurricane currently barreling through the Caribbean.
According to the Virginian-Pilot, the George Washington and Mesa Verde left Norfolk Naval Station on Monday, while the Comfort left Tuesday. The ships will likely head east, away from the hurricane, until the Pentagon can assess which countries need assistance. Disaster relief planners are particularly concerned about Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, where thousands of people still live in temporary housing six years after a devastating earthquake killed 230,000 people.
Currently off the north coast of Cuba, Matthew is moving northwest at 11 miles an hour, with wind gusts up to 145 miles an hour. The storm is now projected to miss most of the United States, turning east after it reaches northeast Florida.
Humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HADR) is an increasingly high-profile mission for the U.S. Armed Forces, which provided assistance after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2010 Haitian earthquake, and 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. After all, who besides the military is better equipped to bring medical and logistical know-how to war zone-like conditions in faraway places.
The three-ship flotilla will have considerable medical power at its disposal. An aircraft carrier like the George Washington has 60 medical personnel—including a ship's surgeon—and five dental personnel. The ship has one operating room, three intensive care unit beds, 52 ward beds, a laboratory, X-ray services, and anesthesia services. The Mesa Verde has two operating rooms and 24 ward beds.
A converted oil tanker, the Comfort is a huge ship with 2 operating rooms, 100 intensive care unit beds, 400 intermediate care beds, and 500 "minimal care" beds. It also has a lab, X-ray station, CT scanner, and blood storage. Total medical personnel at full staffing is close to 1,000, but the ship is rarely fully manned.
The ships can also provide fresh water, a vital resources in disaster zones where local water supplies may have been contaminated. Together, George Washington and Comfort can churn out 700,000 gallons of drinking water a day. Ships headed for disaster zones also typically stock thousands or even tens of thousands of military rations as emergency food.
The breakdown of emergency services in a disaster zone will also make transportation important. The task force will also be able to rescue people from the disaster zone and ferry them to and from Navy ships with embarked Navy and Marine Corps helicopters and V-22 Osprey tiltrotors. Landing Craft, Utility transports and LCAC hovercraft can evacuate people from devastated areas, taking them from one part of the country to another, or even to the fleet waiting offshore.
Beyond actually helping people, HA/DR missions are useful for the military. The spontaneous nature of natural disasters hones short-notice deployment skills. Ships and other equipment must be kept in good condition at all times in order to be able to respond, as well as individual skills. In many ways responding to an earthquake is really not all that different than responding to an overseas military crisis—except for what happens at the destination.