NEWS RELEASE: Operation USA to Aid Hurricane Relief in New Orleans and Gulf Coast

LOS ANGELES, CA (August 29, 2012)—Los Angeles-based International relief agency Operation USA announced today that it will provide emergency aid to the New Orleans area and the Mississippi Gulf Coast as part of relief efforts responding to Hurricane Isaac, which made landfall yesterday and continues to bring torrential rain. The Category 1 hurricane is causing widespread flooding on the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Operation USA worked extensively following that disaster, providing funds and supplies to community-based organizations throughout the region.

 

Operation USA, through existing partner agencies, is assessing shelter, safe water, food, clothing and other needs. The agency has long-term relationships with statewide nonprofit public health associations of Louisiana and Mississippi.

 

Operation USA will focus relief efforts in Haiti in the city of Jacmel—where the agency rebuilt a large public school in partnership with Honeywell, which opened in 2011. The 1.5 acre, 9 building campus was designated as an emergency shelter location, and Operation USA staff on the ground are assessing shelter, safe water, food and other needs.

 

HOW TO HELP: 

Donate online at www.opusa.org, by phone at 1.800.678.7255 or, by check made out to Operation USA, 7421 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036.

 

Text AID to 50555 and donate $10 to Operation USA’s disaster relief efforts.

 

Corporate donations of bulk quantities of disaster-appropriate supplies are also being requested. United and Continental air miles can also be donated to Operation USA through United Airlines Charity Miles program at www.united.com.

 

ABOUT OPERATION USA:
Operation USA’s response to Hurricane Katrina was one of the agency’s largest efforts to date. To address the needs of Katrina victims in the immediate aftermath of the storm, Operation USA focused resources on community health clinics. Having over 27 years of experience supporting low-income health programs, OpUSA provided an initial $8 million in supplies and $700,000 in cash grants to Gulf Coast clinics. These resources ensured the clinics’ continuity of operations and allowed them to provide critical disaster relief and social services. Ultimately, Operation USA’s donors were enormously generous following this disaster—allowing the agency to donate a total of over $17 million in medical supplies and more than $2 million in grants to over 50 local clinics and community organizations. OpUSA continues to support long-term recovery projects in New Orleans, with a focus on children.

 

As part of large-scale disaster relief efforts following the Janaury 2010 earthquake that devastated much of Haiti, Operation USA and Honeywell partnered to rebuild the destroyed public school, Ecole Nationale Jacob Martin Henriquez, in Jacmel. This public primary school now serves 900 students grades K-7 who couldn’t otherwise afford to go to school. Rebuilt as a nine-building school complex, the campus now includes a soccer field, basketball court, library and computer lab. An on-site cafeteria provides each student a free daily meal—for many of the school’s students, the only guaranteed meal they may eat each day.

 

Operation USA is an international relief agency that helps communities at home and abroad overcome the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction and development aid. Since 1979, the Los Angeles-based Operation USA has worked in 100 countries, delivering over $375 million for relief and development projects.

 

Learn more and make secure donations at www.opusa.org.