LOS ALAMITOS : Coast Guard Plane Lands Relief Items

Thursday morning brought not only fog and mist but also a shipment of about 10,000 pounds of baby diapers, canned tomatoes, bottled water, boxed orange juice and cereal for Los Angeles-area earthquake victims.

Those and other needed items landed at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Los Alamitos, courtesy of a donation from the Good Shepherd Center, a Sacramento-based organization offering relief to earthquake victims in the Los Angeles area.

The relief mission--one of many taking place this week to assist Los Angeles earthquake victims--got underway about 8 a.m. when a C-130 Coast Guard airplane carrying two pallets of supplies departed from Sacramento, touching down at the reserve center on schedule at 9:10 a.m.

Within minutes, a giant forklift pulled up to the plane to pull out the first pallet, which contained box upon box of mostly non-perishables such as baby formula and dehydrated potatoes. The second pallet was loaded with 5,000 more pounds of boxes containing similar items.

According to Petty Officer William Atkinson, who was overseeing the shipment, the food and supplies are expected to be distributed by the American Red Cross to those hit hardest by the earthquake, but Red Cross officials said Thursday afternoon that they were unaware of the delivery.

Thursday’s disaster-relief flight was one of many the Coast Guard has conducted this week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked the Coast Guard for 24 hours of flight time to aid victims of Monday morning’s earthquake, which hit the San Fernando Valley hardest. In addition to Thursday’s shipment of food, Coast Guard planes transported the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force to Los Angeles to help find those missing in the earthquake, said Michael Douglass, assistant chief at the governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Once the plane shipment of food was emptied Thursday, it was reloaded with almost $1 million of the task force’s search equipment and then headed back to Sacramento, Douglass said. The task force has completed its search, which focused on the Northridge Meadows apartment building, where at least 14 people died, Douglass said.