On August 29, Hurricane Katrina, a category 4 storm with winds exceeding 130 miles per hour and a storm surge of well over 25 feet, slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, utterly demolishing coastal Mississippi and ultimately taxing New Orleans' levees to their breaking point and beyond. Since the failure of those levees late that evening, much of the city of New Orleans has been under water, with businesses closed and hundreds of thousands of residents displaced to temporary shelters around the country.
The USDA announced it has delivered 80,000 pounds of food and infant formula products to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. Truckloads of additional supplies are en route to affected communities. In addition to providing food and infant formula, USDA's Food and Nutrition Service is assisting disaster survivors by issuing emergency food stamps and distributing food packages directly to needy households. USDA will provide waivers to food stamp recipients so that they can purchase hot meals and expedite delivery of September food stamp benefits. USDA is also permitting schools to provide free meals to children in areas devastated by the hurricane. USDA is also reaching out to food and nutrition program recipients who have fled the affected area but are still in need of assistance.