DOT joins Haiti relief efforts with portable control tower, six ships

We've all seen that the earthquake in Haiti has caused a terrible humanitarian crisis. We at DOT want to do all we can to help the Haitian people begin putting their lives back together.

The fast-ferry Alakai can transport over 800 passengers plus hundreds of tons of relief supplies at speeds of 40 knots

And in the last few days, we've begun doing just that.

• Federal Aviation Administration: setting up a portable air traffic control tower, working to improve the flow of air traffic moving in and out of Haiti
• Maritime Administration: deployed six vessels from its Ready Reserve Force to support relief efforts
• Federal Transit Administration: granted emergency permission to deploy transit ferry Cayo Largo from San Juan, Puerto Rico, with search & rescue teams and relief supplies

The Federally-funded ferry Cayo Largo, which can carry over 300 passengers and 300 tons of cargo, was put into relief action by the Puerto Rico Maritime Transit Authority

The FAA's air traffic control tower is a real symbol of DOT’s contribution to our government’s swift and considerable efforts to help Haiti deal with this terrible tragedy.

Now, our participation is but a small part of the huge humanitarian effort underway in Haiti, but I'm proud that DOT can participate in the relief process, and I'm proud that DOT employees have stepped up to make this happen.

The FAA's portable control tower is 44 feet long, 13 feet high and eight feet wide, and weighs about 25,000 pounds.  It comes with two diesel-powered generators and supporting fuel tanks, plus tools and other support equipment for installation and maintenance. The FAA uses this tower and others like it to support airports where existing towers are out of service after a disaster, like a major hurricane.

FAA's seven-member team is working with Haitians and US military air traffic controllers providing technical assistance for air traffic management and runway safety evaluations. FAA also granted two exemptions from current aviation restrictions, expanding the pool of aircraft available for relief efforts by making them easier to charter.

Sending MARAD's six vessels will help those on the front line of this effort save as many lives in Haiti as possible.  These ships can move tremendous volumes of cargo or people. They add crucial capacity to the relief operations' ability to move supplies and people where they are most needed.

The Cornhusker State, part of the Maritime Administration's fleet of Ready Reserve vessels

As Acting Maritime Administrator David Matsuda said, "These ships and skilled crews are ideally suited
to assist in Haiti by providing unique capabilities.  One cargo ship can carry as much as 400 fully loaded cargo planes."

The two fast-ferries from the Ready Reserve Force will really help relief workers on the ground by allowing quick movements of people in and out of Haiti from various staging points.

The FTA's deployment of the Puerto Rican transit ferry Cayo Largo immediately carried rescue workers, vehicles and precious medicine from San Juan to the port of Baraona, Dominican Republic.

And we are not done contributing to this massive humanitarian operation. The US and Haiti share many ties, and DOT will continue to mobilize what we can to support our friends in their urgent need.

Comments

[Warren]

I'm SO glad to see the various agencies within the government working together to help those poor people in Haiti.

[Michael E. Bailey]

Its great we have the technology and skilled manpower to help out on this. The more we can do now the sooner the people there will be able to get back on their feet again. It looks like we will need to be there for a while. Everything looks pretty flattened and most of the area will have to be rebuilt. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Vince Pearce]

DOT's National Response Program was activated by FEMA on January 15th to carry out the Department's Emergency Support Function 1 (Transportation) role under the National Response Framework.

From the beginning of the operation it became apparent that getting information from repatriated American citizens was a challenge. To address this problem, on January 16, DOT's Regional Emergency Transportation Coordinator and Representative in Atlanta and their headquarters counterparts began working with FEMA and others to create a Flight Following Cell (FFFC) in the Florida Emergency Operations Center. The FFFC mission was to give visibility on inbound repatriation flights from Haiti into the state of Florida. The FFFC utilized the FAA infrastructure to make live contact with pilots leaving the disaster zone. With the help of FAA Miami Center, the FFFC provided flight information, passenger demographics and injury information to waiting medical and special needs teams around the state of Florida. Prior to establishment of this cell, these flights were arriving in Florida with no services providers in place to offer support and medical assistance to passengers including children and the injured.

From all observations (national and state), the FFFC which expanded to include FEMA, FAA, CBP and DOD representatives along with other federal and state personnel is providing the only reliable advance visibility of inbound flights. The data from the FFFC became indispensable to the DOD, FEMA, and the State of Florida. The FFFC, with its partners and FAA continues to be the lynch-pin of Operation Safe Return. The data from the FFFC is the primary data source for dissemination of all vital information to state local and federal authorities.

[McKinney Homes]

I think that it is wonderful that you folks are able to contribute so much to those people in need.

[Ranall Crenwelge]

I believe there is a strong need to contact the major press organizations about the Ready Reserve Fleet and American Merchant Mariners being used for the needs in Haiti. All we hear about on the news is the military supporting relief missions. IT IS ABOUT TIME FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY TO HEAR ABOUT THE MERCHANT MARINE. Many people in our country do not even know what a merchant marine is. I also strongly encourage the President, DOT and Maritime Administration to start building Commercial ships again in our country. Most of the major shipbuilding is done by the Navy. There are always huge cost over-runs. Bringing back commercial shipbuilding at fix-price contracts will end up saving the taxpayer millions and maybe even Billions of dollars in Navy Shipbuilding. Years ago, I did my internship in a major commercial shipyard. People were hustling to make a profit in fixed-price shipbuilding. In Navy Shipbuilding I have seen people goofing off and sleeping. By subsiding and making commercial ships built at fixed price contract will force the Navy shipbuilders to change their way of business and become more efficient saving the Taxpayer so much more money. Also, in order to be a superpower, we need to have basic industries in this country so that we can control shipbuilding and it would also bring 1,000s of highly skilled jobs back to our country. Almost every other country in the world subsidizes shipbuilding or else has nationalized industries. We have lost so many skilled shipyard workers in our country so that very few are left that can build rudders, etc

[Milt Sparks]

I'm doing a research project comparing the response to the Haiti disaster vs. Hurricane Katrina. I keep coming across more and more info like this which shows that there have been major improvements to the way we react to major situations like this. I'm glad that things are progressing in the right direction.

Keep up the good work guys and stay ready for whatever should come next. As they say...it's not "if" but "when" will the next catastrophe strike.

[serial numbers]

To address this problem, on January 16, DOT's Regional Emergency Transportation Coordinator and Representative in Atlanta and their headquarters counterparts began working with FEMA and others to create a Flight Following Cell (FFFC) in the Florida Emergency Operations Center. The FFFC mission was to give visibility on inbound repatriation flights from Haiti into the state of Florida.

[hostpapa review]

Barack Obama in his press conference assured full support to Haitians and that’s truly a humanitarian gesture and the 100 million dollar aid may not be much for a town completely devastated but it certainly is a right step.

The decision to engage US Military in humanitarian assistance is also a welcome step.

[Houston Locksmith]

Wow! What a great blog and what good timing for me that I found it. Cool pictures, too! I'm writing a report on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti and I'm focusing on the ongoing relief efforts. I had no idea that the DOT was providing these types of assistance to Haiti. There was nothing in the "mainstream" news about this. I will definitely put the link to this page in my report.

[MooryParveivy]

soy nuevo, pero esto interesado