USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore presents the first American disaster aid shipment allowed into Burma.

American and Burmese military personnel unloading the first USAID shipment into Burma.

Washington -- U.S. humanitarian assistance began arriving for the people of Burma as authorities finally allowed the first of three American C-130 cargo planes to deliver supplies, and the United States pledged an additional $13 million for communities ravaged by Cyclone Nargis more than a week ago.

Henrietta Fore, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, emerged from the cargo plane to greet Burmese officials, offering an aid package for 30,000 people, including 8,300 bottles of water, 1,350 blankets and 10,800 insecticide-treated bed nets, said Ky Luu, director of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance.

“The commodities that we were able to bring in today, the commodities that other U.N. colleagues and nongovernmental organization colleagues are bringing in represent a small fraction of what is needed,” Luu said at a May 12 briefing.

Luu said the $13 million in new aid the United States is providing is a donation to the U.N. World Food Programme, consisting of both food and funding to support its delivery, bringing total U.S. disaster assistance to Burma to $16.25 million.

According to the Burmese government, Cyclone Nargis, which struck the Irrawaddy Delta May 2, has claimed 31,938 lives with and additional 34,460 people still missing. Aid agencies estimate that as many as 1.5 million people are in need of immediate assistance. “We’re working through all avenues right now to make sure that supplies reach the intended victims as quickly as possible,” Luu said.

Earlier in the day, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed “deep concern and immense frustration” with the Burmese government for its “unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis.”

But getting goods into the aid pipeline is only half the challenge, Luu said, and must be followed up by the establishment of a delivery network capable of getting aid to communities as quickly as possible. “We’re pressing for the authorities really to be able to open up and issue visas for the humanitarian community as a whole,” said Luu.

USAID goods were received and loaded into Burmese helicopters for delivery to the Bogalay Township, Luu said, and the C-130 returned to Bangkok, Thailand, within two hours of arrival. Burmese authorities have authorized two additional U.S. aid flights in the coming days, Luu said, but it remained to be seen whether aid workers would be issued visas or even be allowed to leave the airport.

Burmese military personnel unloaded the C-130 by hand, Luu said, illustrating their need for more efficient logistics. “If you were able to bring in flights, most likely they would be stacked up at the tarmac,” Luu said.

By lifting visa restrictions, Burma’s leaders could help USAID speed up disaster recovery and save more lives by helping to prevent post-storm disease outbreaks. “We need the disaster experts who have capacity to be able to deliver the assistance. And this has to be done as soon as possible,” said Luu.

UNITED STATES READY TO SEND QUAKE AID TO CHINA

If requested, the United States also is ready to send aid to China, where a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in western Sichuan province May 12 killed more than 8,000 people and injured more than 10,000 others.

“The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the Chinese people,” President Bush said in a May 12 statement. “The United States stands ready to help in any way possible.”

Luu said that USAID has several disaster response tools, including the ability to aid nongovernmental organizations already operating in a country, its Disaster Assistance Response Teams, as well as a domestic network of 28 urban search and rescue teams, which in recent years have saved lives in Guatemala and Nicaragua following hurricanes, and in Iran following the December 2003 earthquake in the southeastern city of Bam.

“Our ambassador and other colleagues at post [in China] are working very closely with their counterparts, and the moment that there is a request that's forthcoming, we are prepared to do what we can,” Luu said.