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AA FL 1288 brings 20-member OKDHS team home from the Gulf South
OKLAHOMA CAPITOL --- Twenty members of an Oklahoma Department of Human Services emergency assistance team return to Oklahoma Will Rogers World Airport at 6:13 p.m. Wednesday, after working in various disaster relief centers in southern Louisiana.
OKDHS sent the team to Louisiana after Oklahoma received an Emergency Management Assistance request from Louisiana state officials and officials from Food and Nutrition Services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management coordinated the EMAC request.
The team helped state and federal officials process thousands of disaster food stamp applications and meet other human services needs for Louisianans who were adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina.
OKDHS Director Howard H. Hendrick said, “We committed whatever resources we had to helping our Gulf Coast neighbors, whether in their home states or if they are some of the thousands who have found their way into communities across our state.
“Our staff stepped up and went to Louisiana to help where the help was needed, and I am proud of each and every one of them. They took a little of the ‘Oklahoma Heartland Spirit’ south because we believe it was the right thing to do.”
At the close of business Sept. 19, OKDHS reports its human services centers in 55 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties have opened cases that have helped 2,000 persons from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
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