U.S. Getting International Assistance for Gulf Oil Spill
The United States will be accepting help from twelve countries and international organizations to deal with the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The State Department announced in a news release that the nation is working out all of the particulars of the types of help that have been offered.
There have been over 30 countries and organizations that have offered to help, but the U.S. still hasn’t made a decision about many of the offers. The U.S. rarely faces a disaster where it needs any aid, but the government also accepted assistance when Hurrican Katrina struck. Some of the countries and groups have offered skimmers and boom and dispersant chemicals.
“To be clear, the acceptance of international assistance we announced today did not mean to imply that international help was arriving only now,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. “In fact, before today, there were 24 foreign vessels operating in the region and nine countries had provided boom, skimmers and other assistance.”