Posted on 09/02/2005 11:24:08 AM PDT by michaelbfree
United Nations has created a special task force ready to dispatch disaster experts to the U.S. to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday.
"We are on standby, the alert has been given," said Elizabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman at the U.N. office known as OCHA. "We have created a task force to ensure a fast and efficient response."
Byrs said OCHA had alerted the worldwide members of its U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination Center (UNDAC) to tell them that they might be deployed within the next hours.
OCHA's alert comes several hours after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan offered to help the U.S. with the victims of Katrina.
The U.N.'s children fund, one of the U.N. agencies involved in the task force, said it was particularly worried about the children in areas struck by Katrina.
UNICEF said there could be as many as 400,000 children who may remain without shelter for a few weeks or even months.
"The U.S. has the financial means to react to this catastrophe, but we can help with technical experts and ... psychological assistance," said Damien Personnaz, spokesman for UNICEF.
He said the last time he remembered the international community offering to assist the U.S. with a catastrophe was in the wake of the 1989, 6.9 magnitude earthquake centered near Santa Cruz.
There are over one hundred UNDAC experts across the world. The highly trained experts specialize on a wide range of issues from flooding to earthquakes and health crises. Five teams helped in the Indian Ocean area with last December's tsunami.
How bout if we just hold back our dues?
Oh, how rich!!! They'll take our billions, give us back a few million, but not before putting controls on how we spend it and skimming off 2% for Kofi Annan's family and another 20% for the rest of their beurocracy.
Why is this posted in Activism?
Rumor has it that Kofi is demanding an oil lease and a 50 acre ranch in Denver as well as a date with Gretta Van Sustern</s>
Stingey.
withdraw from our shores and we will consider that thanks enough
How nice of them! Ahhh they can still leave this country... as a matter of fact, they should be thrown out... shoulda happened a long time ago...
Perfect. That's just what the region needs. A bunch of child-raping UN "peacekeepers."
NO!
Hope they don't send any French delegates....they won't know who to surrender to when they hear a gun shot! Militant
U.N. offering assistance...how much is it going to cost us???
Maybe they could vacate their headquarters in NYC, so it could be converted into housing for hurricane refugees. Other than that, I can't imagine how the UN could be helpful.
If you want to help, how about giving us back the zillions you've stolen from us and get the hell out of our country! That would be a start!
Oh yeah!! Just what need. A bunch of blue-helmeted rapists running around the NOLA area. Gee, they'd fit right in.
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