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Peru

DHL relief efforts in Peru: DRT completes mission

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After 10 days of operating from the Pisco Air Base located in Southern Peru, the DHL Disaster Response Team (DRT) for the Americas has completed a successful mission. Two teams were deployed to manage the surge in inbound freight sent by national and international Aid agencies, governments, churches, NGOs and private citizens. In common with other recent disasters, the first day was spent buying, hiring or borrowing warehouse equipment, and then it was a case of palletizing and consolidating all the freight by product. Together with the local labor provided, it took the DRT 5-6 long days to stabilize the situation by getting hundreds of tons of food, clothes, water, tents, blankets, etc onto pallets. Once this was done, it was possible to take an inventory, and move goods out quickly when they were needed. After the initial influx of aircraft, most goods came in by truck: 40ft trailers loose-loaded with 4000 boxes of galletas (cookies), 2500 cases of soya oil, or 500 sacks of rice.

When leaving Pisco on August 30th, the final numbers were:

- 2740 total tons of material arrived at the warehouses and processed by DRT

- 2107 tons of material shipped out from warehouse to impacted areas

- 98 planes received by DRT

- 110 trucks received by DRT

Between 500 and 600 tons of material remained in inventory with a mix of products that included fortified cookies, tents, rice, corn meal, 60,000 litres of bottled water, health kits, medical supplies, diapers, and many more non-food and shelter items.

On the DRT's departure, the Peruvian Civil Defense Force "INDECI" took over the operation. The DRT provided warehouse and inventory management training and latest reports indicate they are continuing the operation as planned.