U.S. Marines roll ashore on Haiti beach in aid push

NEPLY, Haiti (Reuters) - U.S. Marines drove Humvees, amphibious assault vehicles and earth-movers ashore from landing craft on the Haitian coast on Wednesday as the U.S. military intensified its relief efforts to help survivors of last week's devastating earthquake.

Marine troops, sweating under heavy packs and carrying rifles, stepped from a shuttle of landing craft onto a marshy, garbage-strewn beach at Neply, west of Haiti's earthquake-shattered coastal capital Port-au-Prince.

U.S. military helicopters buzzed overhead.

Groups of curious Haitians, standing or squatting, watched quietly as the Marines consolidated a forward base set up in the compound of a mission school at Neply, located in coastal lowlands dotted with sugarcane fields.

U.S. Marines and Navy personnel were helping earthquake survivors to set up temporary shelters for the homeless, fixing damaged roads and also providing medical aid and food.

"We're looking for help right now. My niece has a broken leg," said Dieulfaite Dessources, watching the equipment arrival. "I just want to know if I can bring her here."

"I wanted to ask for a job, but it's really hard. But they can help us any way they can," said Jean Penors Mesidor, a former security guard, as he watched the working Marines.

The U.S. troops and vehicles disembarked from two U.S. warships lying offshore, part of a big aid flotilla sent by President Barack Obama to help tens of thousands of injured and homeless quake survivors in Haiti, a small Caribbean state that was already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Country music blared as the U.S. Marines constructed camp latrines behind rows of green tents.

A tracked, bulky Amphibious Assault Vehicle rumbled past a frightened goat tethered beside a cane field and women washing clothes in a river. It joined several others parked in the Marine base compound.

The U.S. military is spearheading the huge ongoing international relief effort for Haiti following the destructive January 12 quake and it already has around 12,000 personnel in the Caribbean state or on ships offshore.

Working with Haiti's government and U.N. peacekeepers, both of which suffered losses in the quake, the U.S. troops are dropping and distributing aid and providing protection against looters and criminals who might try to steal supplies.

U.S. MARINE UNITS DIVERTED

"We were supposed to go to Africa, and we got redirected to Haiti. We're bringing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief," Marine 2nd Lieutenant Nicole Teat told Reuters.

The disembarking troops were attached to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Another Marine unit, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Lejune, North Carolina, headed to Haiti on Wednesday. It diverted there from what would have been a 7-month tour to the Mediterranean and Europe, said the unit's spokesman, Captain Robert Shuford.

At Neply, Marine Lieutenant Colonel John Golden said the tracked assault vehicles would prove useful navigating Haiti's hilly, earthquake-damaged terrain to seek out isolated villages and towns where quake survivors may not yet have received food or medical assistance.

"Geography is our biggest challenge right now. There are parts of the coastline that wheeled vehicles can't get to," Golden said, adding the Marines would be fanning out to the west and the south to help Haitians in rural areas.

Seriously injured victims were being flown out by helicopter.

(Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Jackie Frank