Embassies, Nations Give Generously
To Help Victims of Hurricane Katrina
At the Canadian Embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue, dozens of staffers led by Ambassador Frank McKenna spent all day Sept. 7 conducting a telethon for Hurricane Katrina victims. By day’s end, the embassy raised more than $20,000 in donations to the Red Cross.
Some 750 people attended an outdoor breakfast benefit and a follow-up lunch, both of which were open to anyone making a donation.
“It was great to see this event take off,” the defense attaché, Army Maj. Gen. Jan Arp, told reporters. “Every province has responded. We’ve opened up our national emergency stock to contribute supplies.”
In the days and weeks following Hurricane Katrina’s destruction along the Gulf Coast, similar events took place elsewhere along Embassy Row, as countries large and small offered contributions ranging from the thousands to the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Offers of assistance have poured in from more than 90 countries, large and small. Even chaotic, impoverished Haiti—the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation—pitched in, with Haitian Embassy st
affers collecting about $1,500 for Katrina victims.
In dollars, the most generous offers of help are coming from oil-rich Middle East nations. Kuwait has already pledged $500 million in subsidized petroleum, while Qatar said it would kick in $100 million and Saudi Arabia an unspecified sum also believed to be in the millions of dollars. A $30 million contribution came from South Korea, while Singapore offered its fleet of Chinook helicopters to help lift survivors from New Orleans rooftops.
Perhaps the most visible help has come from Canada.
Almost immediately after the flooding began, a 40-man Canadian military diving team arrived in the stricken area, working with the U.S. Navy on the identification and removal of navigation hazards and levee inspection.
Meanwhile, a four-ship Canadian task group from the Canadian Navy and Coast Guard sailed from Halifax to the Gulf Coast, carrying emergency supplies, small boats, communications experts, divers and Army engineers.
Likewise, the Canadian Air Force sent two CH-146 Griffon helicopters to assist the U.S. Coast Guard in covering the Boston area’s search-and-rescue requirements to make up for the loss of several U.S. Coast Guard helicopters sent from there to conduct rescue operations in the Gulf Coast.
“We are ready to help,” said McKenna. “You are our friends, and together we are family—you do not suffer alone. We were there after 9/11 with volunteers, teams of rebuilding experts, and in fundraisers and rallies across Canada. After our terrible ice storms in 1998, you were there to help us. In forest fires, floods and natural disasters, Canadians and Americans help each other.”
From Europe, assistance was immediate and forthcoming. The French armed forces sent 17 military personnel with expertise in underwater engineering to Pensacola, Fla., while an Airbus flying from Toulouse to Mobile, Ala., brought 12.7 tons of emergency equipment. Meanwhile, the French government dispatched two aircraft from the Caribbean island of Martinique, loaded with tents, tarps and food rations. Various French multinationals such Airbus and construction giant Lafarge have also joined in the effort, according to the French Embassy.
As part of a NATO plan, the British government has flown 500,000 military ration packs to Louisiana and Mississippi, while the German government offered to ready a hospital ship if needed.
William Timken, the U.S. ambassador in Berlin, thanked Germany “on behalf of the president, the U.S. government and all Americans” for the 25 tons of emergency food rations and the deployment of members of the German Red Cross throughout afflicted areas. Norway, meanwhile, has sent tents, blankets and surgical supply kits. Its donation was praised by visiting King Harald V and Queen Sonja during a fundraising event at the Norwegian Embassy celebrating 100 years of strong relations between the United States and Norway.
And the Netherlands—experts in keeping the sea at bay—made good use of their talents by offering to send a volunteer team of portable water-pump technicians to remove water from flooded areas caused by a breached levee in Plaquemines Parish. The area, located about an hour southeast of New Orleans, was hit hard by Katrina and suffered severe flooding in its small towns and communities.
Meanwhile, the crew of the Dutch frigate HNLMS Van Amstel has been deployed for humanitarian relief operations in hard-hit Biloxi, Miss. Apart from its regular complement of 150 staff members, the ship carries 40 extra personnel, including medical professionals and evacuation experts.
On Sept. 13, a team of five Dutch experts from the Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) and three mobile water pumps arrived in New Orleans to help pump out the flood waters from areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Once the Army Corps of Engineers directs the Dutch experts to where the pumps are needed, the pumps can be up and running within three days. And because these pumps are mobile, they can be easily transported to different locations. Spokesman Dolf Pasman said the team will be in Louisiana to help in Katrina recovery efforts “for as long as it takes.”
Yet the Bush administration hasn’t welcomed all foreign offers of expert assistance with open arms. Reports are emerging that the United States turned down offers of expert assistance from Israel and other nations in the crucial first days after Katrina took its toll on New Orleans.
Experts have offered a number of explanations for this attitude, including the bureaucratic difficulties involved in absorbing thousands of foreign first-responder personnel; the belief that the existing first-responder infrastructure in Louisiana and Mississippi was well equipped to handle the crisis; and the potential political fallout from asking foreigners to help the world’s greatest power save lives on its own turf.
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