According to a statement published on the Luxembourg government website, a team from the humanitarian relief task force and satellite communication platform emergency.lu was placed on standby from 6 September to assist pending international assistance requests.

Emergency.lu is a mobile, satellite-based telecommunications platform that helps re-establish communications after a disaster so that the efforts of humanitarian organisations in the field can be coordinated.

The public-private partnership was deployed for the first time in November 2013 after typhoon Halyan struck the Philippines. It has since been deployed in Nepal following the 2015 earthquakes, in Guinea during the Ebola epidemic and in Haiti, responding to the disastrous wake left by hurricane Matthew.

The Red Cross, meanwhile, has mobilised thousands of disaster workers to assist people affected by hurricane Irma.