Canadian Press
BILOXI, Miss. — The deployment of Canadian sailors and soldiers to hurricane-ravaged Mississippi will not last as long as first thought because the spirit of free enterprise has taken hold along the U.S. Gulf Coast, military officials say.
One of the American commanders overseeing the Canadian effort said that she expects her ship to be recalled soon, perhaps within two weeks, as civilian agencies regain control of devastated communities.
Capt. Nora Tyson, skipper of the assault ship USS Bataan, was talking in terms of days, rather than the month Canadians had been expecting.
The use of sailors from HMCS Athabaskan, HMCS Toronto and HMCS Ville de Quebec as manual labour for cleaning up public buildings and properties "will probably last for the next several days as we try to turn things back over to the local communities and the state,'' Tyson said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"I think we'll all be heading back out within the next week or so.''
Some of the cleanup being done by U.S. military personnel and the Canadians can soon be managed by local workers, said Tyson.
"Part of this too is rebuilding the economy,'' she said.
"We need people to have jobs and we have people who do need jobs.''
There's also a bit a tough love in the no-nonsense sentiment of Tyson, a 26-year veteran of the U.S. navy.
"We realize that these guys have got to make their communities work,'' said Tyson, who has been commanding officer of the assault ship for 18 months.
Even though sailors from the small flotilla only came ashore on Tuesday, the man in charge of the Canadian task force said they're already "actively discussing'' their departure timetable.
"From what I have seen is the U.S. has responded quicker to this disaster than anyone could have reasonably estimated,'' said Commodore Dean McFadden.
"The (Gulf coast) states are getting to the stage where they have the capacity and willingness to take over from federal authority.''
Although he wouldn't be as specific as Tyson, McFadden said that "it would not be a long deployment'' and that he couldn't "measure this assignment in weeks.''
The humanitarian mission, dubbed Operation Unison, involves three warships, a coast guard icebreaker and up to 1,000 personnel.
By the second and third day that Canadian sailors and troops were on the ground in Biloxi, Miss., they seemed to be running out of things to do.
On Thursday, sailors from HMCS Athabaskan were clearing away debris from the grounds of a U.S. navy retirement home.
The Canadians will not work on private property and are being steered clear of projects under consideration for private contractors.
The cleanup is restricted to public buildings, usually in support of American forces, such as Seabees from the 7th Naval Construction Battalion.
Much of the deluged coastline is teeming with entrepreneurs ready for rebuilding and remuneration.
Amid the commotion and sweltering heat of the cleanup at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, the spirit of free enterprise, complete with scruffy cowboy hat and long greying beard, sat on a commandeered high-back leather chair.
"I've got a big truck out there haulin' ice for all them people out there,'' said John Blair, of Lubbock, Tex., motioning to a refrigerated truck in the stadium's parking lot.
"I more or less got a job and stuff so I came down here to help 'em out.''
With the temperature hovering around 40 C and sweating sailors and Seabees all around him, Blair said business has been good.
On a national level, the U.S. government has already awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction contracts in the wake of hurricane Katrina.
Contracts for repairing New Orleans' flood levees, rebuilding naval facilities, providing temporary housing and the removal of debris have been granted to some of the country's largest corporations.
Some of the companies winning deals include U.S. giants Bechtel and Halliburton, which was formerly headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney.
The U.S. Congress recently appropriated more than $60 billion US in emergency funding, while the entire recovery is expected to cost well over $100 billion.
The underlined statement was rather unexpected.
URL: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1126870758937_26
Been There
BILOXI, Miss. — The deployment of Canadian sailors and soldiers to hurricane-ravaged Mississippi will not last as long as first thought because the spirit of free enterprise has taken hold along the U.S. Gulf Coast, military officials say.
One of the American commanders overseeing the Canadian effort said that she expects her ship to be recalled soon, perhaps within two weeks, as civilian agencies regain control of devastated communities.
Capt. Nora Tyson, skipper of the assault ship USS Bataan, was talking in terms of days, rather than the month Canadians had been expecting.
The use of sailors from HMCS Athabaskan, HMCS Toronto and HMCS Ville de Quebec as manual labour for cleaning up public buildings and properties "will probably last for the next several days as we try to turn things back over to the local communities and the state,'' Tyson said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"I think we'll all be heading back out within the next week or so.''
Some of the cleanup being done by U.S. military personnel and the Canadians can soon be managed by local workers, said Tyson.
"Part of this too is rebuilding the economy,'' she said.
"We need people to have jobs and we have people who do need jobs.''
There's also a bit a tough love in the no-nonsense sentiment of Tyson, a 26-year veteran of the U.S. navy.
"We realize that these guys have got to make their communities work,'' said Tyson, who has been commanding officer of the assault ship for 18 months.
Even though sailors from the small flotilla only came ashore on Tuesday, the man in charge of the Canadian task force said they're already "actively discussing'' their departure timetable.
"From what I have seen is the U.S. has responded quicker to this disaster than anyone could have reasonably estimated,'' said Commodore Dean McFadden.
"The (Gulf coast) states are getting to the stage where they have the capacity and willingness to take over from federal authority.''
Although he wouldn't be as specific as Tyson, McFadden said that "it would not be a long deployment'' and that he couldn't "measure this assignment in weeks.''
The humanitarian mission, dubbed Operation Unison, involves three warships, a coast guard icebreaker and up to 1,000 personnel.
By the second and third day that Canadian sailors and troops were on the ground in Biloxi, Miss., they seemed to be running out of things to do.
On Thursday, sailors from HMCS Athabaskan were clearing away debris from the grounds of a U.S. navy retirement home.
The Canadians will not work on private property and are being steered clear of projects under consideration for private contractors.
The cleanup is restricted to public buildings, usually in support of American forces, such as Seabees from the 7th Naval Construction Battalion.
Much of the deluged coastline is teeming with entrepreneurs ready for rebuilding and remuneration.
Amid the commotion and sweltering heat of the cleanup at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, the spirit of free enterprise, complete with scruffy cowboy hat and long greying beard, sat on a commandeered high-back leather chair.
"I've got a big truck out there haulin' ice for all them people out there,'' said John Blair, of Lubbock, Tex., motioning to a refrigerated truck in the stadium's parking lot.
"I more or less got a job and stuff so I came down here to help 'em out.''
With the temperature hovering around 40 C and sweating sailors and Seabees all around him, Blair said business has been good.
On a national level, the U.S. government has already awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction contracts in the wake of hurricane Katrina.
Contracts for repairing New Orleans' flood levees, rebuilding naval facilities, providing temporary housing and the removal of debris have been granted to some of the country's largest corporations.
Some of the companies winning deals include U.S. giants Bechtel and Halliburton, which was formerly headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney.
The U.S. Congress recently appropriated more than $60 billion US in emergency funding, while the entire recovery is expected to cost well over $100 billion.
The underlined statement was rather unexpected.
URL: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1126870758937_26
Been There
