> **[House Select Bipartisan Committee]{.underline}**
>
> **[To Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane
> Katrina]{.underline}**

Good Afternoon.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this hearing by the
House Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and
Response to Hurricane Katrina. My name is Tim Zimmerman, and I am
President of Innotech Products, Ltd. of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Innotech Products, Ltd. specializes in the research and development,
manufacture and marketing of portable, electrochemical heaters. We
started our business in 1990, after our research efforts resulted in the
development of a food heater that was approved by our U.S. Government
for use by our military. These \"Flameless Ration Heaters\" (FRHs) are
water-activated, safe and non-toxic, and are inserted into \"Meals,
Ready-To-Eat\" (MREs) for heating individual rations for our U.S.
soldiers in the field. Since the introduction of the FRH, our company,
in combination with our parent company, Truetech, Inc. of Riverhead, NY,
has provided over 800 million FRHs as a sub-contractor to the Defense
Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP) for use by our U.S. Military.

About eight years ago, we began marketing a shelf-stable, self-heating
meal for the general public under the trademark name, HeaterMeals^®^.
Being shelf-stable, HeaterMeals require no refrigeration and because
they incorporate our patented, self-heating technology, consumers can
*"enjoy a hot meal, anytime, anyplace"^™^*. HeaterMeals are sold to our
original target audience, truck drivers, in truckstops and convenience
stores nationally and to other key consumers like hunters, fishermen,
outdoorsmen, boaters and others people "on the go" in sporting good
stores and other select retail stores across our country.

In 2000, we began marketing a new, self-heating product for replacement
foodservice situations directed at such groups as rural construction and
oil drilling companies, our National Guard, Army Reserves and Active
Military installations, and Emergency Preparedness and Response
organizations like Homeland Security, FEMA, State Emergency Management
Agencies, and the American Red Cross. This meal, HeaterMeals Plus^™^,
combines the ease and convenience of the original, HeaterMeals, the
self-heating meal, with additional snack, dessert and beverage items
that make HeaterMeals Plus *a full course meal*. Our HeaterMeals product
line come in an assortment of eight, great tasting entrees including two
breakfast meals. Since introduction of HeaterMeals and HeaterMeals Plus,
we have sold about 15 million self-heating meals for individual
consumer, institutional, military and governmental use.

Innotech initially started providing emergency response and disaster
support services to various federal, state, local and non-profit
emergency organizations in 1998 when Hurricane George hit Alabama and
Florida. We have provided increased quantities of self-heating meals as
relief support to the Carolinas in 1999 after Hurricanes Dennis and
Floyd hit and flooded these states; to Galveston and Houston in 2001
when Tropical Storm Allison surprised Texas; and, to an even greater
extent, for most of all the Gulf and Southeastern States after the
devastating 2004 Hurricane Season with Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, Ivan
and Jeanne. While Innotech was able to provide almost 1 million
HeaterMeals for relief efforts in response to the hurricanes in 2004,
our efforts were insufficient to meet the exponentially larger
requirements of FEMA, the state EMAs in the Southeastern part of the
U.S, and the Red Cross as a result of the increased severity and
frequency of the storms in the 2004 Hurricane Season.

With the forecast for the 2005 Hurricane Season being as severe as or
greater than the devastation experienced in 2004, Innotech implemented
several initiatives to improve our company's ability to respond. First,
we purchased additional equipment and doubled our plant's effective
capacity to produce and ship HeaterMeals and HeaterMeals Plus. Secondly,
we more than doubled our finished goods inventory going into the 2005
Hurricane Season and required our food and packaging materials suppliers
to do the same. Lastly, and most importantly, we proposed and sought the
financial commitment of FEMA, the State EMAs and the American Red Cross
to an Inventory Management and Automatic Restocking Program to acquire
and warehouse a surplus of HeaterMeals and HeaterMeals Plus in their
distribution centers, or in our warehouse, for preparedness purposes in
advance of the 2005 Hurricane Season.

The American Red Cross took advantage of this preparedness proposal and
acquired a large inventory of HeaterMeals and HeaterMeals Plus to be
warehoused in our Cincinnati facility in advance of the 2005 Hurricane
Season. with an automatic restocking clause after shipments were made.
This program was a success for the Red Cross emergency response
objective to be a "first responder", as *[prior]{.underline}* to
Hurricanes Dennis, Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma each hitting the U.S.
coastline, hundreds of thousands of HeaterMeals and other emergency
commodities were shipped to and staged in the various markets for
emergency response. In total, the Red Cross provided over 1.5 million
HeaterMeals to hungry and displaced Americans during this 2005 Hurricane
Season. It is important to note that an additional 1.5 million
HeaterMeals were provided to other emergency response organizations like
FEMA and State EMAs *[after]{.underline}* the hurricanes hit the U.S.
and to various National Guard, state and local police and
construction/utility companies providing security and restoration
services to the devastated areas.

 

Finally, in response to this Committee's specific interest about our
interaction with FEMA and a response to Hurricane Katrina, Innotech was
contacted by FEMA after the hurricane hit the Gulf States and asked our
company to provide about \$9.0 million of HeaterMeals on contract.
Unfortunately, it was not a contract we could accept, as our entire
finished goods inventory was committed to other emergency response and
disaster relief organizations at that time, as well as the next 3 -- 4
weeks of production. While we were able to provide FEMA with about
300,000 meals for Katrina relief, we were disappointed in our ability to
meet the requirements after the storm had devastated Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama. Perhaps, in 2006, the implementation of an
Inventory Management and Automatic Restocking Program by FEMA, like that
done for the American Red Cross in 2005, would increase the preparedness
and response capabilities of this important organization in the future.
Personally, I believe it is both a critical and basic necessity that our
country plan and implement these types of improvements now, as the
scientific likelihood of natural disasters is expected to increase in
this next decade and the unfortunate occurrence of man-made disasters
forced on our country looms on the horizon.

Tim Zimmerman

President

Innotech Products, Ltd.

November 2, 2005