In the wake of new flooding unleashed by Hurricane Rita, the THW will continue its work in helping to pump floodwaters out of New Orleans and neighboring parishes for at least one more week at the request of the U.S. government and the city of New Orleans.

Working virtually non-stop over the past 21 days, THW teams using their own high-capacity pumps have been able to pump nearly 237 million gallons of floodwater out of the city and neighboring St. Bernard’s Parish.

They completed their work at 37 locations, but after Hurricane Rita caused new flooding in parts of the city and surrounding area, THW experts, in coordination with local authorities, began work at new locations in public buildings and the city drainage system.

THW initially brought a total 89 experts and 15 high-capacity pumps for the mission.

Teams have worked mainly at important public facilities such as Charity Hospital, significant transportation hubs and the local drainage systems, as well as at the Superdome.

They have been supported by a five-person team from Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe as well as a rapid-deployment Humanitarian Intervention Team from the Luxemburg civilian protection service.

In light of a disaster of this proportion, it is the duty of every government to offer assistance and to support those affected as much as possible," German Interior Minister Otto Schily said Thursday in Berlin.

"I am glad that the American government has accepted the German offer of help and that the work of the THW there is progressing well. We gladly extend the THW deployment in the crisis region at the request of the USA and are thus able to contribute to easing the situation."

The THW is the emergency relief and disaster control organization of the German federal government.