Posted: 9/5/2005 12:14:15 PM EDT
And our MRE's are much tastier than the US ones! Andy Hurricane aid flight departs UK
Aid flights from the UK are due to continue throughout the week The first British flight taking aid to Hurricane Katrina victims has left, with military rations for thousands. The African International Airlines plane, with the first of 500,000 ration packs worth £3m, left RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, for Little Rock, Arkansas.
A second civilian charter plane was due to depart on Monday afternoon, to be followed by 15 more in the coming week.
The US on Sunday asked the European Union and Nato to send emergency aid, including blankets, food and water.
It is the biggest aid operation launched from the UK since the response to the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December last year.
Brig Chris Steirn, Ministry of Defence director of logistics operations, said: "When the request came in, we as a nation put our hands up immediately.
"These combat rations have a high calorific value, are easy to handle and are hugely useful in humanitarian operations."
As more refined US requests come in we will respond to them Brig Chris Steirn
He added: "The US have got a lot of troops deployed at the moment, consuming rations, and given the scale of this disaster, with 100,000 to 200,000 people displaced, these will keep them going for a few days."
The MoD could supply more of the four million ration packs it still had in store, he said.
Future aid deliveries could also include blankets, tents and cooking equipment.
"It is certain that as more refined US requests come in we will respond to them," Brig Steirn said.
The ration packs contain a variety of ready meals such as chicken and rice and curry, biscuits, drinks, matches and chocolate.
Wing Cdr Mark Baker, RAF Brize Norton operations manager, said: "Our staff are working around the clock to get this done. It is an extra burden on us but it is one we take on willingly."
Military planes were not being used because they were engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, and because added security was not needed for flights to the US, he said.
The rations will be flown on from Arkansas to Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, where refugees evacuated from the hurricane disaster zone are currently based.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4215404.stm
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