U.S. Forces Airlift Water for Kumamoto Quake Victims

Tokyo, Aug. 9 (Jiji Press)--The U.S. Forces Japan on Sunday airlifted a total of about 33,000 bottles of drinking water for victims of a recent powerful earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

A KC-130 aircraft of the U.S. military transported the water, weighing about 16 tons, from the U.S. Air Force's Yokota Air Base in Tokyo to the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's Vice Camp Takayubaru in the Kumamoto town of Mashiki.

The water will be conveyed to relief goods management stations by land by the Self-Defense Forces and then delivered to people affected by the temblor, which struck on July 28.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass inspected the operation at Vice Camp Takayubaru.

Glass later visited Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura at the prefectural government office with Lt. Gen. Stephen Jost, commander of the U.S. Forces Japan.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]