A Salvation Army Divisional Commander in Jackson, Miss., USA, has said that in his experience the devastation and impact of Hurricane Katrina is unprecedented.
Major Dalton Cunningham, who manages the three states in the US that have been the most hardest hit by the hurricane so far - Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama has said, “The size of this is massive. It is covering several states and coming several hundred miles inland. So the needed resources are going to be more widespread. This one is hitting multiple cities.”
The Salvation Army Commander reported that at least 800,000 people in Louisiana have now been left without any power at all, and especially all those that had sheltered at the Superdome in New Orleans were now without are conditioning and possibly electricity.
It was said that approximately 100 Salvation Army workers are presently working either in the field – such as at shelters in New Orleans – or at national and regional headquarters to coordinate activities.
In addition another 200 are now on stand by at the perimeter of the storm, waiting on the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assess where best to direct resources.
Once the workers are activated, the 200 Salvation Army members, part of the Incident Management Teams will be moving in 72 canteens that can feed 400,000 people a day and two 54-foot mobile kitchens that can feed an additional 20,000 people a day.
