Pacific Fleet Seabees Wrap Up Tsunami Relief Effort

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- Seabees from three U.S. Pacific Fleet commands packed up and headed home Feb. 10, after nearly a month of supporting tsunami relief operations in Southeast Asia and Africa.

Nearly 135 Seabees, under the command and control of Pearl Harbor-based Commander, 30th Naval Construction Regiment, deployed to the region after massive tsunamis devastated villages in several countries.

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 7, which is forward deployed from Gulfport, Miss., to Guam, deployed more than 70 Seabees to the island nation of Sri Lanka during the second week of January. During their operations, NMCB 7 provided an array of humanitarian assistance, such as providing 28,000 gallons of fresh water to civilians throughout the country. NMCB 7 also demolished nine unsafe buildings, floated two beached fishing vessels, and removed more than 1,300 cubic yards of debris from schools.

More than 50 Seabees from Port Hueneme, Calif., who were already deployed to Okinawa, Japan, from NMCB 40, arrived in Indonesia aboard USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) during the same week. Once there, the battalion inspected damaged government buildings, performed assessments on 28 facilities and four schools and supported supply distribution efforts at various locations in Indonesia.

Fifteen Seabee divers from Underwater Construction Team (UCT) 2, also from Port Hueneme, Calif., were sent to Thailand, where they conducted beach landing zone assessments.

The Pacific Fleet Seabees conducted humanitarian assistance in support of Operation Unified Assistance.

For related news on Navy tsunami relief operations, visit the Focus on Tsunami Relief Operations page at www.navy.mil/local/tsunami.

For related news, visit the Commander, 1st Naval Construction Division Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/1ncd.