Fresh Relief Arrives in India
A H M E D A B A D, India, Feb. 3 -- U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo planes bigenough to carry water tankers began arriving in India's devastatedquake zone today as relief workers raced to distribute food,medicine and supplies among hundreds of thousands of survivorsbefore disease spreads.
The demolition of damaged buildings picked up speed. Soldierspiled clothes, broken furniture and children's toys in front ofruined buildings, and survivors made last-minute forays into therubble to gather possessions before their homes were knocked down.
In what U.S. officials described as an "air bridge," two C-5s— the largest planes in the Air Force fleet — flew aid from TravisAir Force Base in California and Dover Air Force Base in Delawareto Guam. In Guam, the supplies were transferred to smaller planes,because the Ahmedabad airport was too small for C-5s.
The first of the smaller planes, a C-141 carrying personnel tohelp unload, touched down just before 8 a.m. today in Ahmedabad,the largest city in quake-hit Gujarat state. A lack of people tounload aid off cargo planes has caused a bottleneck in the reliefeffort.
Planes Arriving Through the Day
A C-17 landed in the afternoon with equipment such as tankertrucks to carry water and forklifts for clearing debris.
Mission commander Maj. Dean Steele of Sonoma, Calif., said theother C-17s carrying sleeping blankets, tents and other supplieswould land at 1 1/2-hour intervals over the rest of the afternoon.
"There is nothing more rewarding than helping people in need,"Steele said.
Aid flights have been landing steadily at Ahmedabad since the quake; the flight schedule for the U.S. planes was cleared for most of today.
As it taxied down the runway after landing, the first giant grayC-17 passed a Kuwait Air Force plane already on the ground. A truckfull of laborers met the U.S. flight to help unload supplies thatwill be distributed by a Christian missionary organization, XavierTrust.
The U.S. military crew could see cracks in buildings at theairport, only a hint of the devastation wrought in Gujarat by the7.7-magnitude quake on Jan. 26.
