What really happened to those brit rations...

[Dekard]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/ ... SECTION=US

Apr 6, 9:51 PM EDT


Audit: Money From Abroad for Katrina Lost

By WILLIAM C. MANN
Associated Press Writer



WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal auditors on Thursday laid out a
scenario of omissions, missteps and bureaucratic nightmares
that caused a loss of money and other donations sent from
abroad to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Lawmakers at a congressional hearing on the subject reacted
harshly to a Government Accountability Office report that
attributed the errors, which involved as many as eight
government agencies, to the United States' lack of experience
as a recipient of huge amounts of aid from others.

Rep. Henry Waxman, the House Government Reform Committee's top
Democrat, said, "This is bureaucracy at its worse, and the citizens
of the Gulf Coast are suffering for it."

The GAO said in remarks prepared for delivery before the committee,
"Given that the U.S. government had never before received such
substantial amounts of international disaster assistance, ad hoc
procedures were developed to manage the acceptance and distribution
of the cash and in-kind assistance."

"It is understandable that not all procedures would be in place at
the outset."

Rep. Tom Davis, the Republican chairman of the committee, said that
it "appears that policies and procedures were lacking, simply because
no one in the federal government anticipated needing or receiving this
assistance."

The GAO said that $126 million in cash came in from 36 countries after
the Aug. 29 hurricane devastated New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi
along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

With plans lacking for dealing with such a large-scale influx, legal
restrictions kicked in that required almost half the cash to be held
in accounts that paid no interest, resulting in a loss of almost
$1 million and diminished buying power for eventual hurricane relief.

Because $400 million more has been pledged but not yet received, the
GAO is urging that instructions be put in place quickly to handle the
money.

Davis said, "It does no good to be offered money, or water, or food, or
potentially lifesaving medical supplies if we don't get those donations
into the hands of the people who need them."

Money was not the only shortcoming of the response to one of the nation's
most costly and deadly natural disasters, which killed almost 1,100 in
Louisiana alone and hundreds more elsewhere. At least 1,900 people are
listed as missing.

Typical of the misadventures was the failure to enlist government
quality-control experts from the Agriculture Department and the Food
and Drug Administration.

This resulted in importation of medical items and military food packages
that should not have been allowed into the country; because they were,
the government had to pay for storing them. The auditors were told of
one shipment of military meals-ready-to-eat, however, that was delivered
directly to a U.S. base whose personnel distributed the unknowingly
banned MREs to hurricane victims.

The report, which will be published later, is the latest of a series of
papers that have documented widespread mistakes and incompetence at
all levels of government in the response to Katrina.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our
Privacy Policy.

[Richard w.]

So, the Brit meals went out to the hurricane victims?

You'd think there'd be more of them on the eBay, then. I'd like a case for myself.

[kman]

Interesting article - thanks for passing it on.

The only thing missing from the article is a description of which military meals were distributed - were they the British rations or the German EPAs?

[mw509]

Interesting article - thanks for passing it on.

The only thing missing from the article is a description of which military meals were distributed - were they the British rations or the German EPAs?

Looks german to me.
http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/art ... 059523.asp

[DangerousDave]

Why would any country donate staple stock cases of food to the USA anyhow, regardless of the trajedy? Hmmm.

[DangerousDave]

I may have been mis-interpreted on my thoughts on this and other threads about this subject, on MREinfo.Com. I don't believe the Brits ever sent any rations to the USA, to begin with. Of course, if any were distributed, some would have shown up on Ebay. There is a possibility that a shipment could have happened, and Uncle Sams' food/agri. police took control of it. I don't believe a shipment of 24 hr. rats ever happened, from Great Britain. Thats what I think, and thats all I have to say 'bout that!

[Halger280HVMag]

IIRC...The Canadian Forces sent Rescue Teams, Canadian Warships, and Personnel as well as Supplies to help out in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.

The IMPs were refused entry.

Dunno about the 24Hr. packs, Though I remember reading about the (non)event in several papers.

2 cents.

[Richard w.]

Well, if the UK didn't send any rations, there sure are a lot of people in on the joke.

From the Washington Post:

washingtonpost.com
Katrina Food Aid Blocked by U.S. Rules
Meals From Britain Sit in Warehouse

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 14, 2005; A01



In the early days of September, as military helicopters plucked desperate New Orleanians from rooftops and Red Cross shelters swelled with the displaced, nearly 400,000 packaged meals landed on a tarmac at Little Rock Air Force Base and were whisked by tractor-trailer to Louisiana.

But most of the $5.3 million worth of food never reached the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Instead, because of fears about mad cow disease and a long-standing ban on British beef, the rations routinely consumed by British soldiers have sat stacked in a warehouse in Arkansas for more than a month.

Now, with some of the food set to expire in early 2006 and U.S. taxpayers spending $16,000 a month to store the meals, the State Department is quickly and quietly looking for a needy country to take them.

In a disaster recovery effort that has been widely criticized as slow, inefficient and at times wasteful, the long and costly journey of the British rations is a tale of good intentions colliding with a cumbersome bureaucracy.

No fewer than six federal agencies or departments had a role in accepting, distributing and rejecting the food. Even now, there remains a disagreement within the Bush administration over which office shipped the meals to 14 locations in Louisiana and which is responsible for paying the mounting storage fees.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees domestic disasters, "knew from e-mails the stuff was moving out there, but we never had control or said anything about it," said spokesman Kim Pease. "It was under control of" the U.S. Agency for International Development, he said.

But USAID spokesman Kevin Sheridan said his agency simply provided logistic support, helping deliver to the Gulf Coast region foreign donations that were acquired by the State Department.

A spokesman for the British Embassy, citing diplomatic protocol in requesting anonymity, said he was puzzled by the turn of events.

"There was a specific request for emergency ration packs, and we responded to that," he said. "We had no reason to believe there would be a problem."

What is clear is that by late on Sept. 8, inspectors from the Agriculture Department halted the distribution because the packaged meals violated import laws that "no beef or poultry of any kind is accepted from Great Britain," spokeswoman Terri Teuber said.

Since 1997, the United States has banned beef products from Britain and several other European countries that have been affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy, known as mad cow disease. A degenerative disease of the central nervous system, BSE is fatal in cattle and can lead to a similar illness in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

"There was a careful review of the law to determine whether there was some flexibility, and at this point that has not been the case," Teuber said.

At the same time, it appeared the urgent need for food had subsided as evacuees reached shelters and other locations with electricity and supplies, she said. "There is no question that different consideration would have been given to the situation if people were going hungry," Teuber added.

The journey began early on Sept. 5, as the first packs, stacked six feet high and loaded onto pallets, left Brize Norton air base in Oxfordshire, England. Aboard chartered aircraft, they were flown 4,400 miles to Arkansas at a cost of $4.7 million, according to the British Embassy.

A wire service photographer documented the arrival that same day, one week after Katrina blew through the Gulf Coast, said Lt. Jon Quinlan, a base spokesman.

In a conference call Sept. 6, USDA officials learned that "food donations may be coming that needed inspection," Teuber said. But confirmation didn't reach them until Sept. 8, three days after the first shipment touched down.

As the rations rode 355 more miles to New Orleans, USDA inspectors hit the road -- literally chasing the delivery trucks to shelters, the city's downtown convention center and other locations where evacuees were found.

Severe flooding prevented inspectors from reaching four sites, and by the time they arrived at the 10 others, about 115,000 meal packs had been distributed. Some were vegetarian, satisfying the Food and Drug Administration, which has jurisdiction over nonmeat imports, spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings said.

The others, with meat in them, should not have been handed out, Teuber said.

"We didn't want to distribute food that's not approved on a daily basis for American consumption to those impacted by the hurricanes," she said.

The inspectors turned the trucks around for the return trip to Arkansas, where the meals remain.

State Department officials have considered sending the food to Guatemala, which was devastated by mudslides. But the impoverished country does not have vehicles to transport the enormous pallets. For cultural reasons, the meals would be inappropriate for Pakistani earthquake victims.

"Everyone wants a happy ending," said a senior State Department official who requested anonymity, given the already bruised feelings in Britain. "No one wants them to go to waste. Everyone wants them to be put to good use."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

[kman]

Thanks for the story, Richard w. That's one of the few articles I've read that doesn't seem to be a word-for-word copy of the original British news story that we've been questioning.

[Richard w.]

This is my favorite part:

...As the rations rode 355 more miles to New Orleans, USDA inspectors hit the road -- literally chasing the delivery trucks to shelters, the city's downtown convention center and other locations where evacuees were found. ...

Go USDA, go!