The USNS Comfort is on its way to Haiti right now. The ship set sail from Baltimore Saturday morning, and is scheduled to arrive by Thursday.
The crew of the Comfort has been told to anticipate a long deployment, possibly six months. They will be providing medical attention. There are state-of-the-art medical facilities onboard, including an operating room. The medical staff aboard the Comfort mostly is from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Virginia.
It took some time to get the ship ready for the mission. When the earthquake hit, the USNS Comfort was undergoing some major work.
“There was no electricity. There was no water, a lot of people welding. It was an industrial site in a sense,” said Navy Commander Cappy Surette. “In 72 hours, the Navy team has put together the most capable floating hospital in the world, to get ready and provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Haiti.”
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
The Comfort was last at sea for a four-month humanitarian deployment to the Caribbean and Latin America. The deployment did include a stop in Haiti.
