No time to lose: Global response to Nepal quake gears up

They will be supported by numerous governments that have announced plans to send aid worth millions of dollars.

The Pentagon said a US military plane departed Sunday morning for Nepal carrying 70 personnel, including a US Agency for International Development disaster assistance response team, an urban search and rescue team from Fairfax, Virginia, and 45 tons of cargo. California was also sending a team of 57 urban search and rescue workers.

The United Arab Emirates deployed an 88-member search-and-rescue team to Nepal Sunday, and the Emirates Red Crescent also sent a team.

The Israeli military said it is sending a 260-member mission to Nepal to provide immediate search-and-rescue help and medical aid.

"An advanced multi-department medical facility, equipped with approximately 95 tons of humanitarian and medical supplies from Israel and a medical staff of 122 doctors, nurses and paramedics, will be rapidly established in the city of Katmandu to provide medical care for disaster casualties," the Israeli military said.

European nations deployed as well: France said it would send 11 rescuers on Sunday; Britain announced that an advance team of eight had been sent and that a 5 million pound ($7.6 million) aid package would be available under a rapid response plan; Italy deployed a team of experts from its Civil Protection Department as well as it foreign crisis team; and the Swiss Foreign Ministry said a team of experts including a doctor, a building surveyor and water quality technician had left for Nepal on Sunday.

Poland is sending a rescue team to Nepal of 81 firefighters, together with heavy equipment and several dogs, as well several medics. The medics are expected in Nepal on Monday morning. The firefighters were delayed by aftershocks and confusion at Kathmandu's airport, said Pawel Fratczak, spokesman for firefighters. He said they are now due to arrive Monday afternoon.

Canada sent an advance unit from its urban disaster search and rescue team, along with medical personnel and humanitarian relief supplies.

Volunteers from various British charities gathered at London's Heathrow Airport getting ready for overnight flights to the Nepal region.

Gary Francis, leader of the Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters group, said the organization was bringing in enough tents, food and water to operate self-sufficiently for 15 days.

They were bring in "a vast array" of equipment including sound and vibration detectors, seismic listening devices, and cutting equipment, with an eye toward finding survivors.

"Once we are there we've got the ability to carry out a coordination role or urban search and rescue looking for survivors trapped in collapsed buildings," he said.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in a statement Sunday evening that the full picture of destruction and suffering would only appear worse "as humanitarian workers reach the more remote areas near the epicenter of the earthquake." She said "entire areas have been flattened" and that time is of the essence in search and rescue efforts.

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