Navy Hospital Ship Comfort to Head for New Orleans

[VeriSexy]

BALTIMORE, Aug. 31-The U.S.N.S. Comfort, one of two hospital ships in the Navy, was preparing today to sail from here at top speed for the Gulf Coast to provide medical services and disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.


The activation of the U.S.N.S. Comfort was part of a mobilization effort by the Pentagon. It included the active deployment of four Navy vessels that left Virginia today for the Gulf of Mexico.


The four ships are transporting a total of six disaster-relief teams, including medical personnel and equipment, to the Gulf. The U.S.S. Bataan, already based in the Gulf, is assisting with search and rescue missions.


In the meantime, the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, announced at a press conference that he was activating a medical unit of the Texas National Guard to greet thousands of New Orleans refugees who were to be bused from the Superdome there to the Astrodome in Houston.


The medical unit, said Gov. Perry, includes eight physicians, a dozen nurses, and 20 medics. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is said to have organized a convoy of 500 buses for the Superdome refugees.


Nearly 200 medical patients were expected to arrive in Houston today as part of a massive air evacuation from New Orleans' storm-crippled hospital system.


The four Navy vessels were expected to arrive in the Gulf by the weekend in what is being described as one of the largest domestic disaster relief efforts in history.


The U.S.S. Iwo Jima and the U.S.S. Shreveport, both based at Norfolk, Va., were scheduled to leave today. The U.S.S. Tortuga and the U.S.S. Grapple were also set to leave today from their nearby base of Little Creek, Va.


The infrastructure along the Gulf Coast, including several medical facilities, was wiped out this week by hurricane winds that exceeded 140 mph in some areas. News organizations have reported that a New Orleans airport terminal is being converted into a field hospital and that the FEMA is working to establish 40 field hospitals in the devastated Gulf Coast region.


The U.S.N.S. Comfort, which is based here, and its sister ship, the U.S.N.S. Mercy, based in San Diego, have nearly a 20-year history of serving in humanitarian missions and in war. The two ships are converted San Clemente-class super tankers.


Each vessel carries 12 fully equipped operating rooms, one thousand hospital beds, digital radiological services, a diagnostic and clinical lab, an optometry lab, a pharmacy, a CT scanner, and two oxygen-producing plants. Both ships have a helicopter deck equipped to land large military helicopters.


The Comfort's most recent domestic deployment occurred September 12, 2001, when it set sail for New York and remained there for three weeks providing medical services, housing, food and laundry after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.


The Comfort's most recent mission occurred in December 2002 when it went to the Persian Gulf to provide support to troops in Iraq.


Both the Comfort and the Mercy were used in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The Mercy and the Comfort can be fully activated and crewed in five days, according to Military Sealift Command. When docked, these two hospital ships are maintained by small crews of civilian mariners and active-duty Navy medical personnel.

I hope they send them both

USNS Comfort (T-AH 20)



USNS Mercy (T-AH 19)

[KRL]

This is the government at its best, LOL. Tell everyone to leave New Orleans and go to Houston and then they bring in the hospital ship afterwards. Great timing.