Hillary Clinton is Wheels Up & Headed for Haiti

According to this WaPo article it sounds like she’s left although I am for Haiti:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left for Haiti on Saturday on a plane carrying relief supplies for the quake-stricken nation, U.S. officials said.

Clinton and U.S. Agency for International Development Director Rajiv Shah plan to meet Haitian President Rene Preval and U.S. relief workers on their one-day trip to Haiti, where the death toll from Tuesday’s earthquake was estimated at up to 200,000 people.

U.S. officials said Clinton’s plane would be carrying several thousands dollars worth food and supplies for 140 U.S. embassy staff in Haiti.

She is also bringing in 100 cases of emergency food rations and 100 cases of water, they said…

This from CNN:

Clinton, the highest ranking U.S. official to witness the devastation firsthand, will be accompanied by USAID chief Rajiv Shah. She will focus her trip on speeding the relief and recovery effort.

Shah said the United States had mobilized $48 million worth of food assistance, enough to help 2 million Haitians for several months. But he said physical and logistical impediments are hampering aid delivery.

Raymond Joseph, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, said Clinton’s visit is critical to coordinating aid efforts.

“I think her presence there will help smooth operations between the Haitian officials — some who are reticent in relinquishing some power — and U.S. officials,” Joseph said.

USNS Comfort

I had thought the USNS Comfort was already in Haiti but I was wrong. It turns out it’s leaving today:

…Comfort will leave its home port here early Jan. 16 and is expected to arrive in Haiti by Jan. 21, delivering a full spectrum of medical and surgical services aboard one of the country’s largest trauma facilities.

“This is a moment when we feel we can have a huge impact,” along with other military medical providers already on the ground, as well as those from nongovernmental organizations and the international community, Ware said. “Our hope is to work with those individuals, side by side, to truly help the people of Haiti.”

Comfort will deliver immense capability to the mission. The hulking hospital ship – three football fields long and one wide – has 250 hospital beds and a 550-person medical team that includes trauma surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, head and neck surgeons, eye surgeons and obstetricians and gynecologists.

The team also will include medical professionals from the Navy, Army, Air Force and U.S. Public Health Service, as well as nongovernmental organizations.

Ware said he expects his staff to initially see about 500 patients a day when it arrives in Haiti, working up to 750 or more, and to conduct 20 to 25 surgical procedures a day.

But his big focus Jan. 15 was on getting the ship manned, equipped and provisioned for the mission ahead. A massive logistical effort was under way to load the food, water and medical supplies the crew – most from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., but also from its sister hospitals in Portsmouth, Va., and San Diego, Calif., – will need.

Two cranes worked simultaneously, hoisting palletized loads of bottled water, packaged meals and other supplies to Comfort’s upper decks. Meanwhile, a long line of tractor trailers that began arriving last night idled nearby, waiting to offload their supplies. Engine roars mingled with the ever-present “beep-beep-beep” of forklifts scurrying in almost every direction alongside the vessel.

Comfort initially will carry enough food and water to sustain its crew – 550 medical specialists and 250 mariners and staff to provide security, communications and other shipboard support – and the patients who will fill its 250 hospital beds for up to 60 days, Ware said…

**I just heard on MSNBC she is definitely in the air and headed towards Haiti.

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