“This hurricane season may prove to be worse than three years ago when hurricanes Katrina and Rita wreaked so much havoc on our Gulf Coast,” said Richard Walden, President of Operation USA. “We hope the American public will continue their generosity to our neighbors in need. We know this is difficult during the culminating weeks of a national election, the start of the school year and the lure of various sporting events, but millions of people have been displaced and for them, surviving the hurricane and resuming a normal life is the only event in their lives.”

Operation USA’s response to the devastation in the Gulf Coast began immediately following Hurricane Gustav with a shipment of antibiotics and heart medications to twenty clinics in Mississippi and Louisiana. Operation USA is sending water purification chemicals to Haiti and Cuba along with medical equipment and supplies. Operation USA is continuing to coordinate with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), as well as statewide nonprofit primary care associations in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas with regard to both Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Operation USA has delivered over $18 million in material aid and provided over $2.5 million in cash grants to agencies in the Gulf Coast states.

Richard Walden, President of Operation USA, was critical of the US Government response, especially that of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Walden said: “The Cuban Government has organized its disaster response effort time and again to mitigate loss of life. The US Government for 49 years has clung to a trade embargo denying Cuba’s people life saving medicines and equipment so that Cuba’s Government might be seen to fail its own people. That has never happened and the US should immediately change its policy to engage rather than strangle Cuba. We provide help with great sadness as all Cuba has asked for is an opportunity to purchase needed supplies, not to ask for charity. With even Miami’s hardline Congressional delegation asking for official US assistance, Rice stands alone in her obstinacy towards Cuba.”

Operation USA is appealing to individuals, foundations and companies for money and appropriate relief supplies to enable it to respond effectively in Cuba.