05 September 2005
Rice Cites "Tremendous Response" Worldwide on Hurricane Aid
Secretary of state says more than 70 countries, U.N. offer recovery assistance
More than 70 countries – large and small – as well as the United Nations have offered assistance to the United States for recovery efforts in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said September 4.
In remarks to reporters while traveling to Alabama – one of the states hit by the hurricane – to view and participate in recovery efforts, Rice said there has been “a really tremendous response from the rest of the world.”
“People have said that America has been so generous in times like this in other places, and now it is time to be generous to America,” the secretary said. “And we’ve received offers of assistance from some 70 countries now, countries as powerful and big as France or China, and as small as the Bahamas, or one of the most touching ones for me was Sri Lanka, which is still recovering from its own natural disaster.”
Hurricane Katrina struck the southeastern United States August 29, causing widespread damage and prompting the largest domestic relief effort in U.S. history. (See related article.)
Rice said officials have begun to match the offers of aid with “the requirements on the ground.” Recovery officials have received and used helicopters from Singapore and Canada rescue efforts, Rice said, as well as Air Canada planes for evacuations from the stricken area.
Finland has been providing logistics experts; Italy and Germany have provided ready-to-eat meals; and Canada has provided pharmaceuticals, the secretary said. In addition, emergency supplies have been received from Mexico, the United Kingdom and Japan, while Greece has provided ships for housing displaced persons.
The United Nations, the secretary said, has sent disaster relief experts to work with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “I just want to say we really appreciate the way that [United Nations] Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the spirit in which this was offered, and he said the United States has been generous so much, we need to be generous to the United States.”
State Department officials with expertise in disaster relief abroad also are involved in the Hurricane Katrina effort, Rice said. Officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are working around the clock with FEMA. “We have a particular strong and good working relationship with the military because we’ve done [disaster relief] all over the world and so it’s good that USAID can help in this effort as well,” she said.
RICE VISITS ALABAMA, SEES “COMMUNITIES COMING TOGETHER”
Rice, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, told reporters after her tour at hurricane relief centers in Alabama that she was there to “let people know we are thinking about them and praying for them.”
The secretary was one of about 300 worshippers who attended a two-hour church service in Whistler, Alabama, on September 4 and toured relief centers with Alabama Governor Bob Riley (Republican).
Speaking to reporters after touring the relief center in Bayou La Batre, Alabam, and working with community volunteers, Rice called the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina “a terrible disaster for our country,” but said she also saw “that communities are coming together.”
“The great thing about America is that we care about each other,” Rice said.
“The volunteer effort here and the pulling together here to help Alabamans in need is apparently going to be extended even in this time of difficulty for the state of Alabama to Louisiana and Mississippi because the state of Alabama is going to take in people from neighboring states, and that really says a lot,” Rice said. “A state that is hurting like Alabama to want to take in people from other places that are hurting too, it just shows what we can do when we pull together as Americans.”
Rice also said she brought a “commitment from the United States of America, from the highest levels of the United States of America” that the relief and rebuilding “is going to get done.”
For additional information, see Hurricane Katrina.
Following are the transcripts of Rice’s remarks to the press while en route to Mobile, Alabama, and at Bayou La Batre, Alabama, after visiting relief centers:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
For Immediate Release
September 4, 2005
2005/835
Remarks to the Press
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
September 4, 2005
En Route Mobile, Alabama
(10:00 a.m. EDT)
QUESTION: What the latest you've been told? What are we going to be
walking into?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think of the three states, Alabama survived best. It was the one that was the least hard hit. But of course, in any normal times, (inaudible) hurricane probably would have -- in Alabama would have been really (inaudible). But we're going to go down. We're going to visit a shelter. We're going to see American volunteers doing what American volunteers do best, which is helping their fellow Americans in an hour of
need.
I'm looking forward to going to the church service before. I think it's important to do that with the community, but also as I myself am a very religious person, I wanted --
QUESTION: Presbyterian?
SECRETARY RICE: Presbyterian. Yes, right. I wanted to have a chance to go to church first thing, and I'll do that with several officials from around the state. So I don't know precisely what the bayou area looks like, but we'll go down and have a look.
QUESTION: Will you be speaking at the church service?
SECRETARY RICE: No, I'm going to be there as a (inaudible).
QUESTION: Okay.
SECRETARY RICE: One never knows what's happens from the pulpit if somebody (inaudible). (Laughter.) One never knows. But I don't expect to speak. Let me put it that way.
I also just wanted to note that we've been spending a lot of time over the last several days looking at the really tremendous response from the rest of the world. People have said that America has been so generous in times like this in other places, and now it is time to be generous to America. And we've received offers of assistance from some 70 countries now, countries as powerful and big as France or China, and as small as the Bahamas, or one of the most touching ones for me was Sri Lanka, which is still recovering from its own natural disaster.
QUESTION: And how much are they -- what are they giving?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, they've offered a cash donation.
MR. MCCORMACK: I think it was $25,000.
SECRETARY RICE: $25,000.
MR. MCCORMACK: I can run through some of the specifics with you afterwards, give you the figures and everything.
QUESTION: Great.
SECRETARY RICE: But we are also now really starting to see the benefit of these donations because we're being able to now to begin to make use of the donations that are coming in. We've had to match requirements on the ground with the offers that were coming in, but those matches are now starting to take place. And we have received and used helicopters from Canada and Singapore. Air Canada planes are being used for evacuation. Finland has been providing logistics experts. One of the big needs was MREs, meals-ready-to-eat, and Germany and Italy have provided those. We've actually gone out to ask countries if they can provide more MREs because that has turned out to be a very big need. We've been offering – accepting offers of pharmaceuticals and bilateral (inaudible) from Canada. We've gotten emergency supplies from Mexico and Japan and the UK, ships from Greece to provide housing for displaced persons.
And I want to highlight that the United Nations last night -- is that right, (inaudible)? -- sent down their disaster relief experts who are now going to assist with recovery efforts. They met with us last night. I think they're going to now do meetings with FEMA and others. They've obviously – there are a lot of very good disaster relief experts. And in the same vein, and I just want to say we really appreciate the way that Secretary General Kofi Annan, the spirit in which this was offered, and he said the United States has been generous so much, we need to be generous to the United States. So having the UN involved is a very good thing.
QUESTION: And you said -- when did that come?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, they came -- we got -- I got the offer almost immediately. But they came down last night -- their team -- to do the planning now, and now we'll get involved in the planning and see where the aid can best be used. Obviously, it's been hard to get into certain places, but that will be getting easier and getting disaster relief people in and recovery experts will be an important next step.
In the same vein, the USAID, which is -- Andrew Natsios is the head of that agency under the State Department -- is the agency that has done disaster relief abroad and they have set up a 24-hour, 24/7 support unit for FEMA so that we can take advantage of our expertise and even equipment and people in disaster relief abroad to help and assist in the circumstances. We have a particularly strong and good working relationship with the military because we've done it all over the world and so it's good that USAID can help in this effort as well.
QUESTION: There was a rumor earlier this week that USAID was actually needing to take over some of the operations, that FEMA couldn't handle it. Is there anything to that?
SECRETARY RICE: No, we've been assisting FEMA. This is something unprecedented in the United States and so -- but it's not unprecedented abroad and so it is the case that I think USAID brings some expertise and some experience that has been, I hope, very helpful (inaudible) and I think will be more helpful. We deal often with internally displaced people and evacuees and that sort of thing on a large scale, and so FEMA has actually had some of the officers from USAID that are sitting with its task force, and now USAID has set up its own task force to help coordinate on the international side and make sure assistance is getting where it is needed.
QUESTION: Do you have any kind of holistic number of how much aid in dollar amounts?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, we'll get that for you. It's still coming in and I think we'll have to put a value on some of it. I mean, there have been a lot of cash donations, which are particularly helpful to the American Red Cross, very large amounts coming in. But Sean will go over that.
MR. MCCORMACK: (Inaudible) go through, get dollar figures and some of the specifics (inaudible).
QUESTION: What exactly does the role of the Secretary of State have to do coming into Alabama?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, when I talked to the President on Thursday around lunchtime and I said -- I told him what we were doing on the international side, you know, how generous people were being on the international side and that we were coordinating those efforts, but I also said to him, "But if there's anything that I can do outside of my responsibilities as Secretary of State, I'd be happy to do that, too."
And I'm a Southerner. I was born in Alabama. My father was born and raised in Louisiana. And I just thought that it would be helpful to have a member of the Administration go to Alabama and to have some of the people there to have a sense of how much it's on all of our minds and all of our prayers, how much we care about what's happening there. The President is – you know, his heart aches when he sees Americans in need, and so that's a message that I can carry. But it's not my normal responsibility as Secretary of State, but it really is because I am a member of the Administration and I want to try and be helpful.
QUESTION: Do you still have family down there? Is your father still alive?
SECRETARY RICE: No, my father is deceased. I have very little family left in Louisiana, some fairly distant cousins, but in the Baton Rouge area. And my family in Alabama, I have some distant relatives in Mobile, but my family in Alabama is mostly in Birmingham and in Tuscaloosa -- all in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa -- and fortunately, the brunt of the storm didn't hit there. But they are taking in a lot of people and working shelters.
QUESTION: Have you talked to them in the last couple of days?
SECRETARY RICE: I talked to my aunt and uncle last night in Birmingham. And I won't get a chance to see them, but I know they're going to be doing a lot. I mean, the State of Alabama is, fortunately, it seems to me, (inaudible) somewhat better, but it's tough going (inaudible) Alabama.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.) Do you think your presence is going to help some of the criticism that the Administration has gotten about whether or not the relief efforts have been racially motivated?
SECRETARY RICE: I just hope that when people stop and think about that, they say that it's just not -- I mean, how could that be the case? Americans don't want to see Americans suffer. And I just don't believe that people are saying, oh, well, those are African-Americans so we won't – this was a disaster of enormous proportion and to a certain extent it overwhelmed the systems initially that were set up to deal with it.
Clearly, one of the questions that people will have to deal with is when you have a large-scale evacuation, (inaudible) the poor and the sick -- of any color -- but particularly sick people and older people, are the ones who have difficulty getting out. And so I'm sure that everybody is going to take a hard look at how to do that better.
But when you think about past cases (inaudible) almost near simultaneous three hurricanes in Florida last year (inaudible) this was just extraordinary circumstance. And I just know the President and I know his heart and I know that he is -- he really aches for these people. And nobody, most especially the President, would have left people unattended because of their race. It just isn't in his makeup or the makeup of the people of like Mike Chertoff and Mike Brown or FEMA. (Inaudible) and I just don't believe it.
And I think when people step back and look, there will be lots to understand about why people couldn't get out, but I don't think it had anything to do
with race.
QUESTION: Did you think the response was appropriate?
SECRETARY RICE: Appropriate?
QUESTION: I mean the federal response, the relief effort. Do you think that --
SECRETARY RICE: (Inaudible) people who have worked very hard and I think the President himself said (inaudible) that we had to do better, that the level was not adequate. And that's why yesterday he ordered (inaudible) and, you know, I think they really are getting on top of it and we're going to start to see (inaudible).
But it's also going to be a long-term effort. This isn't something that is going to get immediately better because there was a lot of devastation. I think this country will really come together. I was listening this morning to a news report about schools around the country in states – higher education, preparing to take in slightly displaced or, actually, (inaudible) displaced. I think you'll see a lot of that kind of response because Americans are generous in their (inaudible) together (inaudible) other Americans are in need. But (inaudible) relief effort (inaudible) try and get through this and get out on the other side.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) wondering if foreign aid is going to be affected (inaudible). As you mentioned, this is going to take a long, long time for the region to recover. It'll cost millions of dollars and, you know, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade, possibly. Is that going to affect how much money (inaudible) overseas (inaudible)?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think when you think of (inaudible) overseas (inaudible), it's linked to our security. What we learned in a very hard way on September 11th is that there are places like Afghanistan that are -- where (inaudible). We are going to have to continue to provide American assistance to the places where we are trying to create a better environment, better relations, so that we don't continue to face terrorism on every front. So since this is linked to our security, I think we'll have to (inaudible). America can't become isolated and withdrawn.
The other thing is that Americans are going to remain compassionate (inaudible) people (inaudible) are in very dire need (inaudible) is that I really think a lot of (inaudible) response internationally that we're getting is (inaudible) compassion and when people are compassionate. And when you are compassionate, you want to return that compassion. So that's the lesson that I take from this is that all the years that America was the largest food aid donor and the largest donor of regional development, and people know that. And from the wealthiest country in the world to the poorest, there is (inaudible).
QUESTION: Will you get a chance to have another vacation after this anytime soon?
SECRETARY RICE: I think I'm going to have to wait a little while. It's been a busy August. You know, I knew with the Iraqi constitution (inaudible) all of this has -- it was going to be a very busy August. Frankly, I thought after the constitution (inaudible), we'd have a little break (inaudible) but it didn't (inaudible). So that's (inaudible).
QUESTION: And you had to cut your vacation short?
SECRETARY RICE: You know, (inaudible) going to have to do it. I knew by Thursday night I wanted to get back to Washington (inaudible). I belong (inaudible) the President. As I said, it wasn't really so much my duties as Secretary of State because I was managing, I think, pretty well the overall international relief effort. (Inaudible), our Executive Secretary, set up a task force and we were taking in offers and getting them (inaudible). But (inaudible) and I have (inaudible).
QUESTION: So are you getting (inaudible)?
SECRETARY RICE: (Inaudible.)
MR. MCCORMACK: (Inaudible.)
QUESTION: Just one last question. Were you -- I don't know. Were you at all surprised about the reaction that you got in New York? Were you disappointed or does that say anything (inaudible)?
SECRETARY RICE: No, I started my vacation (inaudible) Iraqi constitution (inaudible) and I (inaudible) but by Thursday when I checked in with Mike Chertoff (inaudible) and talked to the President around lunchtime, (inaudible) go back. And nobody had to tell me where I needed to be.
QUESTION: Thank you.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.
(end transcript)
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
For Immediate Release
September 4, 2005
2005/834
Press Availability
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
At the Bayou La Batre Community Center
September 4, 2005
Bayou La Batre, Alabama
(3:30 p.m. EDT)
SECRETARY RICE: Good afternoon. I want to just say that, first of all, it is a great honor to be here, to be here with this fine team of local officials and state officials who have mobilized to help the people of this area who are clearly very much in need. This has been a terrible disaster for our country and I came here to what is my home state because I wantedpeople to know that we are thinking about them and praying for them. I talked to the President this morning. When I told him, as he's known, that I was coming down to Alabama, he just wanted everybody to know that we're doing everything that we can to get back on our feet.
But that really what is really heartening to everybody is that communities are coming together. The great thing about America is that we care about each other, and so being here with volunteers, being here with local officials, being here with Alabama National Guard. I was at a church this morning where the prayers were said for people who are in need.
I know that it's going to take a lot of hard work and some time to rebuild the lives of people, to rebuild the economy, to rebuild the housing. But it's a commitment from the United States of America, from the highest levels of the United States of America, that it's going to get done; and America and this area will again emerge strong.
I also want to say that I had a chance to pack up some boxes and people are coming through. This is a beautifully organized center for distribution. met with some of the people who have been evacuated here. And it just gives you great heart to see what people are doing.
And I just want to say one final thing about the State of Alabama, my home state. I was talking with Governor Riley earlier today, and the volunteer effort here and the pulling together to help Alabamans in time of need is apparently going to be extended even in this time of difficulty for the State of Alabama to Louisiana and Mississippi, because Alabama is going to take in people from neighboring states. And that really says a lot: A state that is hurting like Alabama, to want to take in people from places that are hurting too, it just shows what we can do when we pull together as Americans.
And so it's really been an honor to be here. I'm so inspired by what is going on here and I just thank you very much for having me home for a few hours. Thank you.
QUESTION: Dr. Rice, I have a question.
SECRETARY RICE: Yes.
QUESTION: Speaking of grassroots, yesterday I interviewed a woman who was so upset by the lack of response from our government, she picked up her own team of people -- 60 doctors -- to come and evacuate and treat refugees in Biloxi. And she wants to know, and I want to know from your response, where was the federal government and how do you plan to move forward? How can you
explain the grassroots people having to pick up for themselves instead of having more support earlier on?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I do believe that, as the President said, that getting on top of what was an unprecedented situation for the United States -- I don't think we've experienced a natural disaster of this size and of this scope -- I'm really grateful and thankful that local people did mobilize and do what they could at a local level. The federal government has been responding. I am in contact with people like Secretary Chertoff -- I've talked to him many times -- at the Department of Homeland Security, the FEMA people who are here. People are pulling together and trying to respond.
Look, we will have a chance to go back at some point and evaluate how well we did in issues like evacuation. Clearly, older people and sick people, it was hard for them to get out of places like New Orleans, and we've got to go back and take a look at all of that. But what I think we need to do right now is we just need to pull together as a country, try to get through this crisis period, and then start helping people rebuild their lives.
Because as hard as people are working in shelters like this, you want people to begin to have a horizon about the future. And I know that they're going to bring in some housing across here that will allow people to begin to get some normalcy back in their lives. I met some children who are planning to go to school. Schools around the country are mobilizing to take those children. So I think we just need to pull together as a people and let's just focus on what we need to do from here on to help people deal with their lives.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) criticized the Administration. Fairly or not? And as an African American, how does that make you feel when you see this?
SECRETARY RICE: I am an African American. I'm from Alabama. I can tell you that this response is not a response about color; this is a response about Americans helping Americans. No American wants to see another American suffer, and I don't believe for one minute that anybody allowed people to suffer because they were African-Americans. I just don't believe it.
People are doing what they can under the most difficult circumstances. Some of the poorest people, obviously the African-American community in New Orleans, was especially hard hit. They're some of the poorest people. And yes, we do, I think, at some point, need to see that people couldn't evacuate who were poor, people couldn't evacuate who were elderly, people couldn't evacuate who were sick. And we obviously need to understand better how to make sure that that doesn't happen again.
But what I see is I see Americans across the spectrum -- Asians and blacks and whites and Latinos -- helping each other. Because you may be a hyphenated American, an African-American or a German-American or a Mexican-American, but you're American in this country. And that's what you're seeing is that Americans are pulling together to help Americans.
QUESTION: Dr. Rice, I know we weren't expecting something of this magnitude, this type of disaster, but was there a strategic plan in place if something like this should hit or were troops mobilized once we realized what was going on?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, in fact, there has been a lot of planning and lot ofeffort that had gone into trying to simulate bad crises of this kind. Especially after September 11, a lot of effort has gone into trying to simulate crises. I think that the magnitude of this one probably got the upper hand for a while. The combination of the bad storm and then the levee break in New Orleans, the fact that there was just so much water - I'm going to go out now and look at some of the storm damage here. But what we really have to do now, and I know what the President is focusing on and I know what Mike Chertoff is focused on, and Mike Brown and others are focused on, they are focused on making sure that the hardest hit get what they need. One of things that I have been able to do is just walking around and talking to people to get a sense of what people need. We know what the near-term needs are, what the medium-term needs are, but we know that this is going to be a long effort. This is not something that we are going to recover from in a few days, or a few weeks, or even a few months. But we are going recover.
And these fine folks here have done an amazing job of managing the short-term consequences. I know that they are going to need a lot of help to manage the longer term.
QUESTION: What do you think of the 56 foreign countries, which made offers of help to the United States including France? Can you maybe answer in French?
SECRETARY RICE: Absolutely. (Laughter) I don't dare answer in French.
Thank you very much for bringing up the question because we have, in fact, had offers from more than 70 countries around the world. We are now putting those offers to good use. We have used Canadian airlift. Singaporean helicopters were in the area and have helped with people. We have offers from France and those supplies will be taken up. We have a need, as a matter of fact, for - in some parts of the devastated areas -- for meals ready-to-eat, the MREs, and we have gone out to countries to ask for more of those. We've had cash contributions.
I just want to say that people have said without fail that the United States is a compassionate country that has helped so much when there has been devastation around the world that they want give back to the United States. And that should make us feel good as Americans to know that people acknowledge how much we have been able to help and that they now want to help us.
The United Nations has mobilized their disaster experts. I want to thank Secretary General Kofi Annan for that. Their people are sitting with our people in Washington to plan out UN support. So there's just a lot.
And if I could just close with one story that is particularly heartening to me, the small country of Sri Lanka, which has just gone through its own devastation because of a tsunami, is one of the cash contributors to this effort. And that says something about the heart of the world as well as the heart of America.
Thank you very much.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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