U.S. experts in Greece to assist in fires crisis

A group of six experts in fighting forest fires and dealing with natural disasters from the United States arrived in Greece on Monday to assist Greek authorities in dealing with the fires crisis and its aftermath, the U.S. Embassy announced.

Among them is the US Forest Service's top fire-fighter and disaster-relief specialists from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The U.S. has also shipped another 250,000 dollars in relief supplies to the Greek Red Cross, which brings the total U.S. government assistance to Greece up to 1.5 million dollars to date.

The purpose of the experts' visit, as agreement with the Greek government, is to provide immediate technical assistance and support to Greece's current response to the catastrophic fires, with particular attention to fire management and rehabilitation of burned landscapes, as well as emergency management systems.

The team will visit the areas where Greek fire and recovery operations are currently underway, and observe operations staff at command locations. Based on its findings, the U.S. Forest Service will propose a longer-term capacity building and technical support program to the government of Greece.

U.S. Navy twice assists Greek firefighters

Twice this summer, the Governor's Office of Chania, asked for U.S. Navy assistance to extinguish brush fires in western Crete, on July 30 and August 23. On both occasions, American firefighters successfully battled flames alongside Greek firefighters.

According to a press release issued on Monday by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Athens, on August 23, around Lakki, Crete, a team of six civilian American firefighters and two U.S. Navy sailors worked with a large number of local Greek fire departments, including a contingent of Hellenic Navy firefighters.

“The fire was approximately 2,000 acres and was threatening to get into the village,” said Todd McKinzie, captain of Souda Bay Emergency Services. In addition to two American emergency vehicles, there were about 30 other fire engines from all over Crete battling the flames around Lakki.

The American civilian and military firefighting team helped contain this brush fire throughout the night, and returned to the U.S. Navy base the next morning. "As firefighters, that's what we're here for,” said McKinzie, “to help prevent loss of life and property.”

Greek diaspora donates 1.2 bln dollars in aid for wildfire-affected regions

The Greek diaspora all over the world have sped to contribute in financial aid to the fire-ravaged regions of Greece.

Through the mobilization of the World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE), more than 1,200,000 dollars have been collected, until now, worldwide in support of the fire-affected inhabitants of the Peloponnese and the island of Evia in central Greece.

The Greek Australians donated 755,000 dollars.

Greek Canadians donated 200,000 dollars and the SAE countries of the former Soviet Union 200,000 euros.

Information gathered from:
http://www.hellenicnews.com/...

Greeks Crowd Into Banks, Seeking Cash After Fires

By REUTERS

PYRGOS, Greece, Aug. 30 (Reuters) — Thousands of Greeks besieged banks on Thursday, clamoring for state compensation for damage caused by the country’s worst wildfires, a few of which still burned one week into the crisis.

People were taking advantage of a program granting them an instant $4,000 by showing identification and signing a form at banks in affected areas, a simple procedure the government says shows that it is reacting quickly to the fires, which have killed 63 people.

Critics who condemned the center-right government for what they called its initial inability to prevent or extinguish the fires said its compensation system, instituted less than three weeks ahead of parliamentary elections, was open to widespread fraud.

“Who are all these people?” asked Ourania Fotopoulou, as at least 400 people lined up outside a bank here, a provincial capital in the stricken Peloponnesian peninsula. “I don’t recognize a single one of them and I have lived here all my life.”

Many people in the lines spoke with accents from outside the region, and some admitted that they had come from as far away as Athens and Thessaloniki, which is about 370 miles to the north.

A government spokesman said that the forms would be checked later and that anyone committing fraud would be punished. On Wednesday alone, banks handed over more than $33 million.

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis said the simplified system was the right thing. “The order is ‘move fast,’ without any delay,” he said at a news briefing. “We’re removing bureaucratic hurdles. Nothing should stand in the way of us doing our duty.”

The government’s handling of the crisis has become a central issue for Mr. Karamanlis’s campaign as the Sept. 16 election approaches. Kathimerini, a center-right newspaper, said he needed to recover from initial impotence in the face of the fires.

“The first round, that is the fight against the fires, was lost because of the poor performance of the state apparatus,” it said. “The second round, that of reconstruction, has only just begun. It will be an uphill struggle within a tight time frame.” A cartoon in the newspaper showed a helicopter flying over scorched countryside dropping bank notes from a water bucket while the pilot says, “Yes, Prime Minister, as agreed, we’re dropping 100-euro bills so the land will turn green again.”

Vast areas of countryside burned, and more than 500 homes were destroyed by the fires, Europe’s most extensive in a decade, according to the European Space Agency.

On Thursday, some fires raged on, one in the western Peloponnesian peninsula, another on the island of Euboea, north of Athens.

The fires will cost Greece at least $1.6 billion, according to a government minister, and Athens plans to use emergency aid from the European Union. Private citizens have already donated almost $52 million to a disaster relief fund.

This information was gathered from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/0...