It's a 7.9 magnitude quake. On the Coast. The USNS Comfort is just to the north, in Ecuador. Don't wait for orders. If you have to wake somebody up, get your phone out, dial and get the vessel en route. Make the announcement. Tell the press. Get the ship going before the sun rises today. Don't wait for the sclerotic, heat besotted Washington DC folks to get to the office or sit around until the I'm-on-vacation-don't-bug-me Chief Executive deigns to hear a decision-making brief sometime after his morning bike ride and Texas brush clearing session.
IF THERE IS A TIME TO PULSE THE SYSTEM IT IS NOW!
A powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook Peru's coast near the capital, killing at least 71 people and injuring 680 others, Deputy Health Minister Jose Calderon said Thursday.In the early 1900's The Navy has did quake assistance in San Francisco, Sicily and Japan. We did it in Asia. It's part of the naval tradition. We have the protocols. We have the platform.
Speaking on television and radio, Calderon called the situation "dramatic" in Ica, a city of 650,000 people located 165 miles southeast of the capital.
He encouraged Peruvians to donate blood for the injured and said a convoy of doctors and nurses was headed to the Ica area. News reports said dozens of people were crowding hospitals in the city seeking help even though the hospitals had suffered cracks and other structural damage.
Among the dead were 17 people killed when a church collapsed in the city of Ica, south of Lima, according to cable news station Canal N. Another 70 people were injured in that incident.
Just do it.
NOON ET UPDATE HERE. WELCOME YOU ARGGHHH!!! PEOPLE. (Loved the embed comic strip! I simply lothe Sulzberger...) Thx Maggie-
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