After more than two months at sea, providing disaster relief in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the amphibious warship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) returned to homeport at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. on 6th of November, United States Naval Institute (USNI) said.
Kearsarge and amphibious warship USS Oak Hill (LSD-51) initially left Norfolk on Aug. 31, in order to provide relief support to the Gulf Coast of Texas following Hurricane Harvey, according to a US Navy statement.
Kearsarge and Oak Hill’s services were required in Florida and Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which were hit by other storms. In the operations joined USS Wasp (LHD-1), which had been scheduled to sail to the Pacific this fall.
Both Oak Hill and Wasp departed the region two weeks ago, the US Navy stated. Oak Hill returned to Norfolk, while Wasp stopped in Mayport, Fla., for some repairs before recalculating the trip to its new homeport in Japan.
While in Puerto Rico, sailors and Marines from the Kearsarge ARG cleared main roads to facilitate the flow of emergency personnel, food, supplies, and fuel.
Sailors and Marines from Kearsarge also evaluated and restored generators in Puerto Rico, which suffered a near total loss of electricity following Hurricane Maria, the US navy mentioned.
The following are some of the significant events that took place during Kearsarge’s hurricane relief work:
- More than 3 million pounds of supplies were delivered to Puerto Rico by the Kearsarge ARG.
- 2,608 weather observations made since Aug. 31 by Kearsarge’s weather team. These were used for flight and landing operations conducted by Kearsarge, along with other ship responding to provide hurricane relief, and by the citizens of Puerto Rico. The team created 2,555 weather products, such as daily forecasts used by the ships in the ARG, tidal predictions, environmental information, and five-day forecasts.
- President Donald Trump visited Kearsarge during his visit to Puerto Rico, evaluating the U.S. government response to providing disaster assistance in the wake of Hurricane.
- Air Force Gen. Lori J. Robinson, commander of United States Northern Command, visited Kearsarge on Oct. 17 while she toured Puerto Rico, evaluating the military’s response to provide disaster assistance following Hurricane Maria.
