Matrix Supplement

This a supplement to CREW’s Hurricane Katrina International Offers of Assistance

Matrix designed to further explain reasons that certain offers from countries were declined or
accepted. Listed below are categories of offers and explanations that were found within the
documents for their rejection or acceptance. There are also several specific examples of countries
whose offers were declined or approved because of a specific known reason.

Medical Assistance:

• A September 9 memo states that doctors of any kind are in the “forget about it” category.
(DE43).
• A September 6 memo indicated that no medical offers (personnel or drugs) were being
accepted with the exception of forensics. It mentions licensure as an issue and that it
would be beneficial to know if any of the offered medical teams had been U.S. trained.
(RF195)
• A memo dated September 13 indicated that medicines and medical related offers are not
to be accepted due to “sensitivities about state licensing.” (RF360)

MREs:

• In 1997, regulations were put in place by the U.S. Government banning the importation
of British beef following the outbreak of Mad Cow disease. (B220B)
• Following Hurricane Katrina, the USDA prevented the distribution of approximately
33,000 MREs from Germany, Spain, Russia and France. This was due to EU regulations
of beef that did not meet USDA standards. There was some discussion of redistributing
the packages to another nation in need - possibly Georgia, Panama or Haiti. (B196,
B220B, B142)
• Unused MRE’s were housed in a storage unit costing $16,000 per month. (B220B)
• The U.S. Government tried to return MREs from the United Kingdom- but the UK would
not accept them - approx numbering 300,000. (B142, B162)
• According to Adam Ereli, a DOS Deputy Spokesman, the need for MREs following
Katrina was met in the first few days and supply far exceeded demand. (B162).
• A “State Department negotiated” exception to the banning of foreign foodstuffs are
Russian MREs, Thai rice and Israeli powdered milk. (N39)

Water Pumps/Generators:

• According to a September 28 memo, the Dutch Minister of Trade was frustrated with
attempts to donate flood technology because the Jones and Buy American Acts were
preventing them from doing so. (B47)
• The Army Corps of Engineers was only interested in receiving large spec generators -
any small generators (less than 20KW) were not accepted. (DD101)

Misc:
• The offer from the Ukrainian people of $10,000 and supplies was urged to be accepted
because the donators were often very poor and it was a “symbolic donation.” (DT93)
• Same memo (DT93) points out that there are serious political issues in which offers get
accepted and which get denied.
• Israel expressed dissatisfaction at the delay in Washington when they had a C-130
aircraft with relief supplies on the tarmac for over 48 hours waiting for clearance. (DE01)
• Tunisia expressed dissatisfaction at the delay in Washington when they had two C-130
aircraft loaded and ready to leave but could not confirm a U.S. destination. (TC90)
• A French salvage tug was recalled after it had already departed once communication
finally reached the Hurricane Task Force that the offer had been officially declined.
(TB111)

Argentina:

• Argentinian mental health experts were accepted and appear to be the exception to the
FEMA rule because of their international reputation. (TB180) They were associated with
the UN and has assisted in most major disasters in the last ten years. (DD43).

Cayman Islands:

• The donations from the Cayman Islands were highlighted as particularly generous but
denied due to the damage of Hurricane Ivan. (B57)

Colombia:

• 30+ disaster personnel were declined because only a select few (4) were deemed capable
and had English language skills. (DI183) Clearance for the 4 was finally obtained by
HHS on September 15 (DD18) but as of October 5th arrangements were still being made
for their arrival. (RE226)

Cuba:

• According to DOS, the offers from Cuba were rejected because of Hurricane Dennis just
a few weeks earlier and the fact that many Cubans were still in need. (DQ73B)

El Salvador:

• The Fonomed company offered their services of telephone medical consultations to the
Spanish-speaking community affected by Katrina. This was denied because of licensing
requirements in the U.S. (DS118)

Estonia:

• A response to the offer from Estonia was seriously delayed, prompting this quote from
the US Embassy in Tallinn: “It is getting downright embarrassing here not to have a
 response to the Estonians on flood relief...We know that what the Estonians can offer is
small potatoes and that everyone at FEMA is swamped, but at this point even a ‘thanks
but no thanks’ is better than deafening silence.” (LT125)

Macedonia:

• An offer of blankets came through that put the Hurricane Relief Fund in a dilemma.
According to an email exchange, if the blankets were accepted they would be put in
storage creating potential bad press. If the blankets were denied, then the earlier
acceptance of cash would look bad. This is an example of a common problem that was
discussed in the documents.(B27)