French response to Hurricane Katrina

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

was one of the first nations to offer aid to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

. On August 31, French officials expressed their condolences to their American counterparts: President Jacques Chirac

Jacques Chirac

Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

wrote a letter to President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs

Minister of Foreign Affairs (France)

Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs ), is France's foreign affairs ministry, with the headquarters located on the Quai d'Orsay in Paris close to the National Assembly of France. The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the government of France is the cabinet minister responsible for...

, Philippe Douste-Blazy

Philippe Douste-Blazy

Philippe Douste-Blazy is a French centre-right politician. He served as Minister for Health , Minister of Culture and Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Dominique de Villepin .Douste-Blazy is also a cardiologist and Christian Democrat politician from Lourdes...

, wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...

.

The U.S. federal government

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

refused French assistance initially, but on September 2, Rice said that the U.S. authorities would assess the situation and contact French authorities accordingly. On September 4, French assistance was formally requested. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs offered its disaster relief stocks located in the Martinique

Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

, including 600 tents, around 1000 beds, 60 electrogenic groups, three pumps, three water purification

Water purification

Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, materials, and biological contaminants from contaminated water. The goal is to produce water fit for a specific purpose...

stations, 1000 folding jerry cans, and other supplies.

A 35-man team of the Sécurité Civile

Sécurité Civile

Operating for the French Ministry of the Interior, the Direction de la Défense de la Sécurité Civile is a French Government civil defence agency, employing some 2,500 civilian and military personnel over 60 sites...

from Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...

and Martinique were ready, including 11 hurricane specialists, and a 60-man "catastrophe intervention" airmobile detachment could be ferried from mainland in a short time. These men are of the Ministry of the Interior.

The Ministry of Defence offered two planes already in the hurricane zone, and six more from mainland France, two ships of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

(probably the BATRAL

BATRAL

The Bâtiment de Transport Léger are small landing ships of the French Navy. They are able to ferry over 400 tons of matériel, in the hangar and on the deck. Loading and unloading can be done from a harbour or from a beach. Two flat-bottom vessels allow unloading 50 men and light vehicles each...

Francis Garnier or Champlain, and the frigate Ventôse
FS Ventôse
The Ventôse is a light monitoring frigate of the French Marine Nationale. She is the fourth ship of her class, and the first French vessel named after Ventôse, the 5th month of the Republican Calendar...

) and a 20-man emergency medical team.

The non-governmental organisation Télécoms Sans Frontières

Télécoms sans frontières

Télécoms Sans Frontières or TSF is a humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization specialised in emergency telecommunications.The emergency telecommunication means provided benefit to the victims of natural disasters and of conflicts, and to the other humanitarian aid organisations.-About TSF:-...

and the company Véolia Environnement have offered their services in communications and water management, respectively. The French Red Cross has put 12 logisticians at the disposal of the American Red Cross

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...

.

Planes were ready from September 5, but take-off was delayed by a few dozen hours because the U.S. authorities did not provide information about where they wanted aid to arrive. The French ambassador in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

insisted that this information be given as soon as possible http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/actu/bulletin.asp?liste=20050906.html#Chapitre2 and the French Embassy issued a number of press releases http://www.consulfrance-atlanta.org/katrinaus.htm and a list of governmental and private efforts (PDF).

On September 7, an Airbus Beluga

Airbus Beluga

-External links:*...

from Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

with 12.7 tonnes of material (notably nine tents (25m² each), 50 tents (4x4m each), 40 cover rollers and 170 8x12m covers, 300 folding jerricanes, kitchen sets) flew to Mobile

Mobile, Alabama

Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

, after a brief stop in Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

to load more food. 2 CASA

Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA

Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA , was a Spanish aircraft manufacturer. It became EADS CASA the Spanish branch of EADS in 1999, but was absorbed by Airbus Military in 2009...

airplanes from Martinique landed in Little Rock the same day, ferrying tents, covers and 1000 rations of food for one day. The equipment was ferried on roads.
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/actu/pointpresse.asp?liste=20050906.html
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/pays-zones-geo_833/etats-unis_471/france-les-etats-unis_1141/relations-politiques_4115/ouragan-katrina-31-aout-2005_22046.html
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/05/300&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

On September 8, further requirements were issued by the USA for divers and forensic experts.

On the 21 October 2005, US authorities formally thanked French officers with a reception given at the US embassy in Paris http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/b/eur/55453.htm.

French victims of Katrina

As of September 9, no French citizen was reported killed by the hurricane. Assistance was given by the team of the consulate of New Orleans to 40 French citizens.

Two missions were working:

One mission from Atlanta was working in Biloxi
Biloxi, Mississippi
Biloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, in the United States. The 2010 census recorded the population as 44,054. Along with Gulfport, Biloxi is a county seat of Harrison County....

, Gulfport
Gulfport, Mississippi
Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi after the state capital Jackson. It is the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the...

and Mobile, visiting homes to locate French citizens.
Another was in New Orleans, attempting to contact any French citizen still there.

Furthermore, teams were in San Antonio and Dallas, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

to locate French citizens among the refugees. Four physicians were available.

The French consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

ate in New Orleans was temporarily moved to Lafayette

Lafayette, Louisiana

Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...

External links

Lettre du Président de la République adressée au Président des Etats-Unis

News articles

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