Samaritan’s Purse airlifts 40 tons of supplies to Mariana Islands

Samaritan’s Purse sent a 767 cargo plane out of Greensboro at 2 a.m. Friday, loading more than 40 tons of relief supplies for the Northern Mariana Islands after Typhoon Sinlaku tore through Saipan and Tinian. The Greensboro-based organization said the shipment was aimed at communities facing damaged homes, flooded neighborhoods and long stretches without basic services.

The airlift carried clean water systems, shelter material, solar lights, generators, jerry cans, blankets and shelter plastic. Samaritan’s Purse also said a second flight was being prepared to deliver materials for an outpatient medical clinic, signaling that the response was expected to move beyond immediate survival needs and into basic health care as the recovery continues.

Sinlaku intensified to a Category 5 cyclone on April 14, with wind speeds reaching 180 mph, according to Samaritan’s Purse. The group said the storm damaged roads, hospitals and power grids across the islands, where nearly 50,000 people live. Franklin Graham said many residents were without water and power and that the situation could last for weeks, underscoring the scale of the disruption facing families in Saipan and Tinian.

For Guilford County, the mission offered a clear example of how a local institution can operate on a global disaster stage. The airlift departed from Samaritan’s Purse’s Greensboro Airlift Response Center, turning a local logistics hub into the starting point for emergency aid halfway around the world. It is the kind of operation that depends on aircraft, warehouse capacity, supply chains and trained response teams moving quickly under pressure.

The organization has done it before. After Typhoon Yutu hit Saipan and Tinian in 2018, Samaritan’s Purse said it helped more than 7,600 families and airlifted more than 80 tons of relief supplies to Saipan over three DC-8 flights. That history shows the Northern Mariana Islands are not a one-time destination for the group, but part of a broader pattern of rapid response from Greensboro when major storms hit the Western Pacific.