USS Nimitz Supporting Guam Relief Efforts with Helicopters and Communications

Image: Sailor observes the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) from an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter from the ‘Screamin’ Indians’ of HSC-6 on May 30, 2023. US Navy Photo.

By Sam LaGrone,Originally published in Proceedings / USNI News June 2023

The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group was operating off the coast of Guam, providing support for disaster relief operations for the U.S. territory that was struck by Super Typhoon Marwa during May and June of this year, Navy officials told USNI News.

The Navy secured federal waivers for USS Nimitz (CVN 68) to serve as a communications and transmission hub for local authorities. Helicopters assigned to Carrier Air Wing 17 assisted civil authorities.

Guam wrestled with wide swaths of destruction from 140-mile-per-hour winds and 30-foot waves when Super Typhoon Marwa skirted across the U.S. territory from May 19 to June 3, 2023.

“Recovery from Typhoon Mawar is no quick feat,” Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said, according to Stars and Stripes. “It will take time and collaborative efforts from everyone in this community.”

As of Thursday, June 25, half of the island was still without power and only about half of the island’s water systems were operational.

Naval Base Guam may not get power fully restored for several weeks, Base Commander, CAPT Michael Luckett, said.

“It’s going to be a phased approach as we restore systems here. This is unfortunate, but it is our reality,” he said.

Typhoon Mawar, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Betty, was one of the strongest Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclones on record in the month of May, and the strongest tropical cyclone worldwide in 2023 so far.

In addition to the Nimitz CSG, the Air Force deployed a five-person Disaster Recovery Response Team from the Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s Natural Disaster Recovery Division based at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., to support disaster relief efforts.