Sailors aboard the U.S. Navy＇s forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) load containers of water onto an MH-60S Seahawk from the "Golden Falcons" of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 12 in support of Operation Damayan, Nov. 15,
Some 20 helicopters arrived on the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, which docked on Thursday night at Samar Province to the east of Leyte. Goldbeck said they will be used to deliver food, medicines and other supplies to inaccessible areas. Philippine choppers are also dropping off goods.
But despite the reports of progress, the situation in the hard-hit city of Tacloban remains challenging. International humanitarian organizations expressed dismay that they still have not been able to reach beyond certain points of the city.
Orla Fagan, a U.N. Humanitarian Affairs public information officer in Manila, expressed worry about a dwindling fuel supply for vehicles transporting aid. But she said that was just one concern.
“There is also issues of no power. I don’t know what the situation is this morning," Fagan admitted. "There is communications issues. The mobile phones are coming up and going down at the moment… you’ve got the roads covered, as well, still in debris.”
The Philippine government has said this week the crisis has been one of the largest “logistics and relief operations ever taken on by the country.” On Friday officials defended the aid effort despite the failures to reach many storm survivors.
"In a situation like this nothing is fast enough," Interior Secretary Mar Roxas told reporters in Tacloban. "The need is massive, the need is immediate. You cannot set anybody aside because everybody, all at the same time is hungry, all at the same time have no water, all at the same time have no communication, no power. So this is, the challenge here is almost like D-Day, Normandy."
On Friday morning officials said the government had reached its goal of handing out food packs to the 40 remote locations around Tacloban in a 24-hour period. These are good for at least two days, possibly three. But that means similar food runs will have to continue in order to feed hundreds of thousands of hungry, homeless people.
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