JCB Inc., Savannah, Ga., has announced it will send an initial $1 million worth of machines to help disaster relief efforts in the wake of the tsunami that ravaged South Asia in late December, according to a release from the company.
Five JCB backhoe loaders have been airlifted to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and other machines have been donated to Tamil Nadu, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Sir Anthony Bamford, JCB chairman, says that earthmoving equipment will be of paramount importance in the early stages of the relief effort in helping to remove debris.
“The scale of the disaster is even bigger than we first anticipated,” Bamford says. “We are doing everything we can to get the job done.”