TO SAFETY: A soldier carries an elderly woman from a wrecked home in Kesennuma in the hardest-hit Miyagi prefecture yesterday. (Kyodo News)

Us relief began to arrive yesterday in areas of Japan most affected by the massive quake and tsunami.

The US Navy said two helicopters delivered 1,500 pounds of rice and bread to Shiroishi in hard-hit eastern Japan. And the US 7th Fleet, based in Yokosuka, Japan, said two destroyers — the USS McCampbell and USS Curtis Wilbur — prepared to move into position “to assist Japanese authorities with providing at-sea search-and-rescue and recovery operations.”

Another destroyer, the USS Mustin, will depart from Yokosuka today, and eight other US ships are en route to Japan from various locations, set to arrive today or later in the week, the 7th Fleet said.

“We have units from all of our services, with a multitude of capabilities, from medical to communications to civil engineering, poised and ready to support where needed,” John Roos, US ambassador to Japan, told reporters yesterday.