Defense Logistics Agency provides food, fuel, other supplies to FEMA for Sandy support

FORT BELVOIR, Va., Nov. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Defense Logistics Agency continues to supply the Federal Emergency Management Agency with food, fuel, pumps and other emergency supplies since Hurricane Sandy did catastrophic damage in the Northeast.

In a blog post Oct. 31, DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek said the agency's watchwords are "significant actions, urgently executed."

"If you're either in the game or sitting on the bench, I want you to make things happen, ensure they happen and back-up your shipmate if you think of something we're not doing," he wrote. "And that goes across the Enterprise, not just Sandy support."

To date, DLA has ensured delivery of more than 4.5 million meals to areas in New York and New Jersey. Deliveries to FEMA sites included:

-- 1 million meals to Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, N.Y.

-- 1 million meals to Lakehurst, N.J.

-- 1 million meals, ready-to-eat to Fort Hamilton, N.Y.

DLA has provided more than 850,000 gallons of fuel to the relief effort, including support to first responders at 10 sites in New York and 10 sites in New Jersey. 

The agency is also delivering more than 100 water pumps to help speed recovery of flooded areas and 51 generators to areas without power.

DLA Disposition Services coordinated the delivery of nine heavy hauler trucks and five Humvees to local governments in affected areas through the Law Enforcement Support Office.

DLA is also providing 150,000 blankets to New York City, 1,000 each cots and blankets to Fort Hamilton, and 3,000 cots to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. Cold-weather clothing, hypothermia prevention kits, portable X-ray machines and other medical items have been sent to the joint base. Navy Rear Adm. Patty Wolfe, acting DLA Troop Support commander, is currently working there in support of Joint Task Force Civil Support, the Defense Department entity coordinating DoD support to FEMA for recovery efforts.

In addition, Army Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dowd, DLA's director of logistics operations, and other military logistics leaders toured devastated areas of New Jersey, as well as FEMA and Army Corps of Engineers staging areas, Nov. 2-3.

Earlier in the storm's aftermath, FEMA requested 1.5 million meals for residents in Charleston and Martinsburg, West Va., as well as three high-power generators to support facilities such as evacuation shelters and hospitals where residents were dealing with 2-3 feet of snow, said Buzz Hackett, deputy chief of the DLA Joint Logistics Operations Center.

Vendors on tap to meet additional demands for food are capable of producing 660,000 meals a day within 24 to 48 hours' notice and 1.2 million meals a day within 72 to 96 hours' notice, he added.

Sandy is one of two hurricanes that prompted DLA support in the 2012 hurricane season, The first was Hurricane Isaac in late August.

In an earlier blog post, Harnitchek noted that DLA has a longstanding relationship with FEMA to provide direct support for food and fuel in responding to domestic disasters.

So when directed, he wrote, DLA team members start doing what they do. "And they do it really fast," he added.

As a Department of Defense combat support agency, DLA provides the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, other federal agencies, and joint and allied forces with a variety of logistics, acquisition and technical services. The agency sources and provides nearly 100 percent of the consumable items America's military forces need to operate, from food, fuel and energy, to uniforms, medical supplies, and construction and barrier equipment. DLA also supplies more than 80 percent of the military's spare parts.

Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va., DLA has about 27,000 employees worldwide and supports more than 2,210 weapon systems. For more information about DLA, go to www.dla.mil, www.facebook.com/dla.mil or http://twitter.com/dlamil.

SOURCE Defense Logistics Agency