Flood Victims "Impressed" With Collaborative U.S., Pakistani Relief Efforts

Brig. Gen. Michael Nagata, Deputy Commander of the Office of the Defense Representative in Pakistan, told reporters Wednesday from Ghazi Airbase in Pakistan that flood victims have been “impressed” by the way U.S. and Pakistani military forces have worked collaboratively in providing relief to the struggling country. 

“They are impressed,” Nagata said. “They are impressed when they see Pakistani service members and U.S. service members working side-by-side, often times flying in the same helicopter, …to shepherd those civilians that need recovery.

Gen. Nagat applauded the nearly 230 U.S. soldiers who, in cooperation with Pakistani soldiers, have tackled the challenging obstacle of offering aid to those most affected by the disastrous flood that struck the country nearly 3 weeks ago.

A fleet of 15 U.S. Navy and Marine helicopters are currently in Pakistan where Nagata said they have delivered over 1 million pounds of relief supplies to flood victims, a majority of which is food, and recovered more than 6,000 stranded Pakistanis in the Swat Valley.

Four more “heavy lift” helicopters are expected to add to the arsenal of relief aviation units in the first week of September and Nagata emphasized that the U.S. will remain in Pakistan as long as needed.

“We’ll remain in Pakistan so long as the government and military leadership of Pakistan ask us to be here,” he said. “We are only here for one purpose and that is to help people in need.”

During the three weeks of U.S. military relief in Pakistan, Nagata said there has not been any security threat and he remains certain that Pakistani relief efforts are not alleviating the pressure from those who threaten the country.

“Am I still confident that Pakistanis will continue to wage a dedicated and committed struggle against violent extremism in Pakistan? Yes, I am,” he said. “Do I believe they will continue to pursue violent extremism in this country? Yes, I do.”

Secretary of State Clinton Calls On American Public To Help Pakistan Flood Victims

  The Pakistan floods will be the greatest test of global solidarity of our time, United Nation Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told the General Assembly during a donors conference for the embattled country today in New York. The Secretary General returned this week from a trip to Pakistan where he got a first hand look at of the scope of the destruction. 

 “The eyes see, the ears hear, yet somehow the mind struggles to grasp the full dimension of this catastrophe. Almost 20 million people need shelter , food and emergency care, more than the entire population hit by the Indian ocean tsunami” said Ban, who described the flood  as a  “slow motion tsunami”.

 Ban says at least 460 million dollars will be needed to address basic needs over the next 90 days, and although over half of the funds have already been met by pledges, Ban says there is no time to spare.

“All of these resources are needed and they are needed now. Your pledges today must be followed up by action, action that delivers change on the ground.”

 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also announced the US would pledge another 60 million dollars to Pakistan and revealed the creation of the Pakistani Relief Fund, a mechanism designed to facilitate public financial donations to flood victims. Americans will be able  contribute 10$ to the cause by text messaging “FLOOD” to 27722 or downloading a donation form on the State Department website in order mail their contribution.

 “The United States has and continues to take swift action to help. But governments cannot be alone in helping the people of Pakistan” Clinton said in a statement released earlier today. 

The past three weeks of rain and flooding have left nearly 20% of the country submerged, destroyed the country’s infrastructure and most of its crops and farm land.

With nearly 70% of its population employed in agriculture and over 1 billion dollars in crops destroyed,Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi says his country, the sixth most populated in the world, now faces serious food insecurity. Qureshi also fears Pakistan’s infrastructure  will not be able to sustain the large number of people forced to migrate from flood affected areas to larger cities and expects the situation to get worse as the rain and waves of flooding continue.

Low corn yield equals expensive beef

Corn, apparently, is many things. It is animal feed, human food, and ethanol. I spoke with George Chadima in Fairfax, a farm owner near Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Excessive moisture has caused the nitrogen to be leeched from the soil, which is requiring farmers to buy biologically active fertilizer. The corn that was planted already has been “drowned” by water pooling in areas, and much of the rest was also damaged by a recent hailstorm. Crops, he said, would probably yield 75-80% of what they normally do.

I was shown a warehouse that housed large containers of soybeans yet to be planted. The planting schedule is three weeks behind already due to the weather, and hopefully, he said, they’ll be able to plant within the next couple of days. This is happening to many farmers in Iowa, and the result is going to mean higher prices- in everything.

Corn prices, of course, will go up, since using corn for “human food” or exporting it elsewhere, essentially removes corn from the chain of production. Ethanol, surprisingly, does not create that problem, because after the grain alcohol is removed there are still co-products from the corn, such as animal feed, plastics, and oils. The chain of production includes feeding that corn to animals, and then using the byproducts as fertilizer. Because it is costing more to harvest the corn, and there will be less of it, this will cause beef prices to rise.

Iowa City, IA

The damage and flooding in New Orleans, LA in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are the yardstick that many people refer to today when evaluating the destruction a large storm can leave behind. How many roads were closed, how many homes were flooded, how high did the water go, and what sort of lasting effect remains to be seen? Those are the questions that are asked, and the severity is frequently compared to NOLA to decide "how bad is it?"

The storm that left areas of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City flooded, is being referred to as "the Katrina of the Midwest." Crops were damaged, neighborhoods were flooded, and many were shocked to discover that yes, it can happen to you- you, too, can lose everything in the blink of an eye.

I flew to Chicago and drove a rented SUV to Iowa City. Along the way, because bridges were out and roads were closed, I was frequently diverted to side roads and at one point, the road was washed out entirely and my vehicle got stuck in a mud hole. It was pulled out by a very polite farmer named Dustin, using a very big, very green, and very noisy John Deere tractor. They did not seem surprised that I was going to Iowa City.

I had to stop in three places to get directions, even with a GPS, because of the roundabout route I was taking. One woman behind the counter told me she was very tired of people showing up as "lookie-loos" and taking pictures of drowned houses. She also fixed me with a withering look that could melt candle wax, when I asked her if she was following the politics in Washington at all.

I received that same incredulous look from three people today, all of whom refused to actually be interviewed. All three, however, told me the same type of answer: No, because what happens in Washington, does not apparently affect them in any way. A woman actually burst into laughter at the question, and added further that there is no reason for either of the candidates to show up in Iowa to show their support, because "what are they supposed to do, stand in front of the TV and emote for us?"

She, and others on the sidewalk that chimed in, agreed that money should not be spent on having either Senator McCain or Senator Obama show up to survey the damage done in Iowa. Iowa needs their money, they said, and Iowa will take care of its own.