Letter to the Chairman from the Secretary
of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
As you are no doubt aware, the last two months
have been exceptionally busy ones for the Foreign Office's consular
crisis teams. Hurricane Katrina at the beginning of September
was followed in quick succession by Hurricane Rita from 23 September
2005 onwards, the bombings in Bali on 1 October 2005, the Pakistani
earthquake on 8 October 2005 and, most recently, Hurricane Wilma
in Mexico.
This memorandum sets out in detail the action
which the Foreign Office took in response to the two hurricanes
which hit the United States—concentrating in particular
on our handling of Hurricane Katrina. I believe it shows that,
on the whole, Foreign Office staff did an exceptional job in extremely
difficult circumstances.
Hurricane Katrina caused major destruction to
the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama—and
in particular to the city of New Orleans. In total the federal
authorities designated over 233,000 square km as a disaster zone—an
area about the same size as the United Kingdom. The hurricane
displaced over one million people and caused damage estimated
at between US$ 70 billion and US$ 130 billion. The official death
toll stands at around 1,300 people. Although we do not know the
exact number of British nationals affected, we estimate that in
Hurricane Katrina it was probably fewer than 1,000. Of these only
a small number were tourists. Most were businessmen and long term
residents, many of the latter being British/US dual nationals.
They were spread across the affected area. One Briton (a long
term resident of New Orleans) is confirmed dead, and nine remain
on the list of those originally reported missing. There are no
reported British casualties from Hurricane Rita.
In response to both hurricanes, we used well-rehearsed
standing arrangements to make sure that we got trained staff on
the ground quickly. This included sending rapid deployment teams
from London to provide support to our consular staff deployed
from across our posts in the United States. The first such team
arrived in Houston on 1 September, the day after the levees broke
in New Orleans. Our Consulate General there had already set up
a reception centre for British nationals being evacuated out of
New Orleans and had been asked by the local authorities to co-ordinate
international relief efforts. The British consular presence was
the largest of any country. Our staff continued to work around
the clock providing a rapid and co-ordinated response in extreme
conditions.
Attached to this memorandum are examples of
the praise which British nationals gave for the help provided
by our consular staff, and for the efforts which were made to
search for and locate those reported to us as missing. We have
also been thanked by EU partners for our co-ordinating role with
them. In addition to the purely consular response, our Embassy
in Washington, and staff from the Cabinet Office and DfID, helped
to co-ordinate UK and EU assistance to the US authorities.
I am sure that you will remember that there
was criticism at the time of Hurricane Katrina that we were slow
in getting to those British nationals who were in the New Orleans
Superdrome. As the attached record shows we repeatedly requested
access to New Orleans but were denied it by the State authorities.
Once those authorities sanctioned access on 4 September 2005,
our consular staff were among the first into the city.
I would also like to make a point of noting
that some of the criticism in the press—most notably from
the Mail on Sunday—had no basis in fact. An article
written by that newspaper, and subsequent correspondence between
the Managing Editor and David Triesman, are attached at section
G. I am sure that you will fully understand that it would be quite
wrong for ministers to allow such a false accusation to stand
against staff who have volunteered to work extraordinarily long
hours in very harsh—and sometimes traumatic— conditions.
This is not to say that our response was faultless;
it wasn't and it never will be in such a situation. Where there
were complaints we have investigated them. And just as we have
learned from previous incidents, including the tsunami in the
Indian Ocean, we shall use the experience gained from Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita to improve our response further in future.
But overall, I believe that the Foreign Office's
response to these huge natural disasters was professional and
well-run. In the vast majority of cases our staff did a good job
and in many they went well beyond the call of duty.
I would be happy to provide any further detail
or clarification which the Committee may need.
Jack Straw MP
Foreign Secretary
10 November 2005
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