Chapter Appendix B - What Went Right
Section Department of Agriculture
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Department of Agriculture
Prior to Katrina making landfall, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) had proactively pre-positioned food in warehouses in Louisiana and Texas, making the food readily available for disaster meal service programs. FNS continued its efforts to ensure adequate supplies of food were on hand or nearby by airlifting initial supplies of infant formula and baby food products to Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi and then following up with additional baby food supplies for delivery via land transportation (this amounted to approximately two million pounds). Additional commodities (approximately twenty million pounds), that included fruits, juices, vegetables, meats and grains, were also procured and/or diverted from existing USDA and other state sources to assist with congregate meal service and provide families with food packages until the Disaster Food Stamp Program could provide food relief (certain locations in the hardest hit areas could not operate the Disaster Food Stamp Program because there were no retail outlets available). Additionally, schools outside the devastated areas were granted waivers which permitted the service of free meals to children who had fled the devastated areas and began attending school elsewhere. FNS also promptly implemented the Food Stamp Program's first National Evacuee Policies that enabled State agencies that were not affected by the hurricane or that were not administering a disaster program to immediately issue disaster benefits to individuals and families who evacuated to their States. FNS approved over seventy waivers to affected States to issue benefits under the disaster authority. FNS also expanded the range of foods that could be purchased with food stamps in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and Texas, and approved alternate procedures for use and replacement of food stamp benefit cards to improve a household's ability to purchase food.
About 3,000 members of the Forest Service also deployed to the region to support response efforts. Arriving in Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama, Forest Service personnel established support camps, provided aviation assistance, and transported desperately needed supplies to relief workers. The base camps they established were capable of supporting 1,000 emergency responders at each site. They bolstered the destroyed aircraft infrastructure in the region with their own fixed wing planes and helicopters. They also helped navigate the Federal procurement system and successfully obtained needed emergency response supplies. These activities allowed local and state emergency response personnel to focus on response rather than worrying about the supplies and other support they needed.43
Many organizations and agencies that responded to Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing flood arrived in the region without much experience with or knowledge of the affected States and their geography. National Guard member Ronnie Davis - also of the USDA National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) - utilized the organization's digital data (ordinarily used to produce conservation plans and generated in Texas) and its Digital Topographic Support System to create the much needed maps of the affected regions of Mississippi. Davis and his team set up the system on an airport runway, and using a National Guard generator, managed to produce over 800 maps to support sector operations. In addition to hand-delivering these maps to National Guard units, the team also delivered maps to local police, law enforcement officers arriving from other States, and FEMA. According to Davis, his "...work for NCRCS just transitioned into what was needed to help with Hurricane Katrina relief in Mississippi and to support the local governments."44
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) sent fifty veterinarians and wildlife experts to the region to rescue animals - pets, zoo animals, and livestock. They augmented and provided veterinary services in Louisiana and Mississippi, saving more than 10,000 animals from the flooding of New Orleans. They delivered fresh water and bales of hay to starving cattle. They also successfully rescued mice that were part of Tulane University's cancer research program. APHIS helped many animals survive until they could be reunited with their owners, reduce the economic impact of further agricultural losses, and maintain research continuity.45
Through its Emergency Conservation Program, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) provided funding to help farmers and ranchers rehabilitate farmland damaged by the hurricane and flood. Administered by FSA state and county committees, this program provided the additional resources needed to remove debris from farmland, and restore farm-related infrastructure (e.g., fencing). FSA also decided to change its policy for those affected by the disaster, allowing eligible producers to receive 100% cost-share assistance in implementing an approved practice (instead of the usual 75%).46
The USDA program for Rural Development did not wait to be asked and instead, reached out to those displaced by the hurricane and flood. It offered direct loan borrowers a "no-questions-asked" moratorium on their mortgage payments, while simultaneously working with guaranteed lenders to prevent any liquidation actions and offer payment forbearance. The program also actively looked to fill the housing gaps that could not be addressed by FEMA and the Small Business Administration by finding alternative lodging for those that had been displaced, and making these victims a higher priority for Rural Development housing. For example, the program arranged to let tenants use vacant seasonal labor housing units while repairs were being made to their own homes. Rural Development looked for ways to make its own activities bend to meet the housing needs generated by this catastrophe, while continuing to meet their ongoing commitments to rural communities throughout the Nation.47
Many scientific federal organizations worked with scientists in the affected region to continue their research. For example, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the in-house research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), did not allow the hurricane to derail important ongoing agricultural research throughout the Nation. When the USDA Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, ARS quickly relocated some of the scientists, support staff, and their families to the U.S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory in New York. ARS provided support to these families, facilitated the continuation of their research, and gave them the opportunity to collaborate with other scientists from the Cornell University Departments of Plant Pathology and Animal Science.48 ARS and other federal agencies, such as the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Energy Office of Science provided scientists with the resources and support they needed to continue their research in spite of the hurricane and flood.49
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