Air Force Aids Pakistan Flood Relief Effort

  • Published
  • By Jennifer Elmore
  • Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency
More than a month after heavy rains caused flooding in Pakistan and displaced an estimated four million people, the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency, Tyndall AFB, Fla., continues to provide supplies to the country. The U.S State Department's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance sends millions of dollars each year to AFCESA's Air Force Contract Augmentation Program, known as AFCAP, which uses the funds to provide quick cost-effective supplies and services for urgent mission requirements. Immediately following the disaster in early August, OFDA worked with AFCAP to provide concrete saw blades to Pakistan. A few weeks later, it was water purification units, tablets, and containers. This week AFCAP is purchasing blankets and tarpaulins for the Pakistani people.

AFCAP is a contingent tool to provide Civil Engineer and Services personnel with a force multiplier by leveraging use of the commercial sector. Response to natural disasters accounts for less than five percent of AFCAP's annual workload. AFCAP has also provided everything from air traffic controllers to power plants. For civil engineers, the products and services can include planning and design; infrastructure and facility construction, operation, maintenance, sustainment, and revitalization; disaster recovery and more. In FY10, AFCAP spent more than $335 million provided by customers who over the years have included all branches of service, OFDA, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the State Department, Department of Justice, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security, and more.

The key to the program is speed. "When Condoleezza Rice was Secretary of State, she promised the Prime Minister of Lebanon that the U.S. would provide humanitarian relief supplies," said AFCAP Program Manager Mr. Wayland Patterson. "A few hours later we got a list of the items they wanted there by noon the next day. On the six o'clock news, reporters were saying what the U.S. promised to provide and it was the same list we had just put out to the vendors to purchase. We met that promise"

AFCAP fulfills only urgent, just-in-time requirements to help OFDA meet its National Command Authority objective to quickly curb the tide of death and human suffering when the United .States. is asked to assist.

In FY10, AFCAP fulfilled these requirements for OFDA:
  • Procured and shipped emergency hygiene items to the Republic of the Philippines following Typhoons Ketsana and Parma
  • Procured human remains pouches, generators, portable light sets, infant formula, kitchen sets, and leased vehicles for Haiti following the earthquake in January
  • Procured electrical generators for Chile following an earthquake and tsunami in February
  • Procured kitchen sets for families in Mexico following Hurricane Alex in July
AFCESA is a field operating agency that reports to the Office of The Civil Engineer at Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. The agency provides professional readiness, energy and operations support, tools and practices to maximize Air Force engineering agile combat support worldwide.