Only days after Hurricane Katrina destroyed a swath of the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the IRC dispatched an emergency team of relief experts to Louisiana. For the first time in its 73-year history, the organization responded to a humanitarian crisis in the United States.
Only days after Hurricane Katrina destroyed a swath of the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the International Rescue Committee dispatched an emergency team of relief experts to Louisiana. For the first time in its 73-year history, the organization responded to a humanitarian crisis in the United States.
“Normally, we respond to international crises caused by humans, not natural disasters in this country,” said George Rupp, then the IRC’s president. “But when we received an urgent plea for help from people in Louisiana, we decided we had to act.”