| |
Israeli Flying Aid Sends Team to Katrina Affected Region
USA, September 10th, 2005
On the 10th of September a 20-member team composed of personnel from the Israeli Flying Aid and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev flew to Houston to participate in the post-Katrina hurricane relief effort. Working under the auspices IsraAID the delegation included medical personnel, psychologists and experienced search-and-rescue divers. The group arrived to Baton Rouge – and were ultimately assigned to St. Bernard Parish and Belle Chase in Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana.
The area, 20 miles downstream from New Orleans. In addition to the massive damage inflicted by Katrina's strong winds, the area was particularly hard hit by flooding when the two levees on either side of the town gave way. The Diver's Search and Rescue team which was led by "Israeli Flying Aid" accompanied the local Sheriff's officers and passed between the houses that were affected to try and trace bodies. The post trauma experts have met with their colleagues in the Red Cross as well as with the local forces and offered assistance. The team led by Dr. Rony Berger has started initial programs to help the people.
Working directly with the local authorities and without electricity or running water, the medical team operated a makeshift clinic out of a church. Led by Prof. Michael Alkan, a senior member of the Faculty of Health Sciences at BGU, the medical team included an internist, a family physician, and two students – all affiliated with the University's Medical School for International Health "The pictures are horrific the smell is overwhelming, but what makes it unbearable is the silence in the dead towns. No people, no animals, just police preventing looting," wrote Alkan in an email shortly after arriving in Belle Chase.
Prof. Alkan, was particularly worried by the possibility of disease being spread by the standing water throughout the town. "I immediately advised a policy of preventative immunizations – in tetanus and hepatitis A – to as many of the residents as possible. It was clear that anyone with even a small cut who was exposed to the sewage and filth in the flood waters could get very sick," he explained.
"Words can't describe people's responses when they discovered that we had come all the way from the Holy Land to help," he said. "They were truly touched that someone cared."
The Israeli groups received funding from the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and the Philadelphia-based investment firm CMS Companies, which first came in contact with IsraAID when it was organizing an effort to raise money for relief after last winter’s Southeast Asian tsunami.
The team also received logistical support cars, housing, contact with local officials from federations in Houston, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in addition to the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Nechama and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
IsraAID and Israeli Flying Aid wish to thank all those who supported and helped us in these efforts.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
