Samaritan's Purse is working in partnership with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). Between the two organizations we operate 5 aircraft: 1 Cessna Caravan, 1 Cessna 206, 1 Dehaviland Otter (amphibious) and 2 helicopters

We have landed in the Nias airport with both our 206 which flies in and out of Sibolga, and our Caravan which flies from Medan. The Caravan is down for inspection over the next 2 days until Saturday; meanwhile we are chartering a SMAC plane. Our helicopters are being used for inter-Nias travel.

In the Nias capitol of Gunungsitoli, we set up a tent which serves as our main office and secured a landing pad for our helicopters near a port that could also receive boats. This is near a hotel that we have been using and the mayor's office where all the NGO's congregate. All of this is located in the highly devastated area of the city. We brought medical supplies to begin meeting the basic health needs of people, emergency shelter kit materials and also began coordinating the evacuation of the most seriously injured people with our own aircraft. We have also sent 3 truckloads of extra supplies for shelter kits which include: 400 kg of nails, hammers, 100 rolls of plastic, other building supplies, lots of blankets, a generator, and 2 water tanks - these will arrive by ship through a chartered fishing vessel from Sibolga on Friday morning. Today we flew in directly from Medan, 850 kg of first aid medical supplies as well as food and water (we have also been flying out injured people on this plane) all to further support our programs. We have been flying government people in and out as well; there has been no extra room on our aircraft for other NGOs at this point.