Guard battles Isabel's destruction
Army News Service
Release Date: 9/23/2003
By Master SGT. Bob Haskell
ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, Sept. 23, 2003) -- More than 2,500 Army and Air National Guard troops in five states and the District of Columbia turned out with chainsaws, trucks and water trailers to help people along the East Coast deal with the devastation of Hurricane Isabel.
They evacuated people from flooded island homes to shelters on higher ground. They helped local police departments prevent looting. They provided clean water and ice to communities with contaminated water systems. And they helped state transportation workers clean up the storm's considerable debris.
"I am always impressed by their dedication, commitment and willingness to respond in a moments notice - at times putting their own well being at risk," said Army Guard Col. Peter Aylward, who directed the National Guard Bureau's Crisis Action Team in Arlington, Va.
"We will do whatever it takes to help save lives, prevent suffering and mitigate property damage," Aylward added.
Guard soldiers drove Humvees into 30-inch deep floodwaters to rescue people stranded on islands along Maryland's Eastern Shore of the battered Chesapeake Bay.
Nine of them spent the weekend providing local police with enough of a presence to prevent looting, said Maj. Todd Stewart, who commanded a 200-soldier task force responsible for 250 miles of shoreline. "They only have a couple of police officers, and they had problems with looters the night before. We gave them a deterrent to prevent further problems,"
Stewart explained.
Most of the Guard's labors were focused in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia where millions of people were coping without electricity and drinking water. The storm was blamed for about 30 deaths, including 17 in Virginia.
More than 1,300 troops were on duty in North Carolina, and over 600 in Virginia. Nearly 700 were on duty in Maryland during the weekend's peak of activity, and 170 were served in the nation's capital.
Troops evacuated more than 1,000 people from Maryland coastal communities with five-ton trucks and Humvees and also provided security details for Hooper and Taylor islands, said Maj. Charles Kohler, the state's Guard spokesman.
North Carolina Guard members airlifted water, ice and military meals to the Outer Banks, transported 2,500 gallons of fuel by ferry boat, deployed 40 generator teams to provide auxiliary power and dispatched security teams to North Hampton and Hyde counties, Guard officials reported.
In Virginia, about 120 members of the 276th Engineer Battalion helped Department of Transportation crews clear some 400 miles of primary and secondary roads in Surry and Isle of Wight counties, between Virginia Beach and Richmond.
Other Virginia Guard Soldiers, from the 2nd Battalion, 111th Field Artillery, were ordered to state active duty to help provide traffic control in Hampton and to distribute water to Hampton and Virginia Beach.
About 300 citizen-soldiers began operating eight regional water and ice distribution sites on Sept. 21, said Lt. Col. Chester Carter III, Virginia's National Guard spokesman.
More than 1,400 troops in seven states were waiting when the Category 2 storm hit the North Carolina coast with 100 mph winds and torrential rains at midday on Sept. 18 and then cut a swath toward the north as it diminished to a tropical storm.
The combination of high winds and floodwaters from the storm, said to cover an area the size of Montana, led to federal disaster declarations for North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Delaware. West Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania government leaders declared state emergencies.
Guard troops were ready to help state officials assess the damage and help citizens in those states as well. Fifteen two-man crews in West Virginia, for example, were prepared to rescue and evacuate citizens from areas of that waterlogged mountainous state where flooding from Isabel's heavy rains was a major concern.
Air National Guard commanders ordered 59 planes - including jet fighters and huge transport planes - flown from their home bases in six states along the storm's projected path, between Virginia and New York, to safer havens in other parts of the country.
The Virginia Army Guard also sent half a dozen helicopters to Frankfort, Ky.
This war against the weather is an old National Guard mission under new management.
"We're here to provide the policies, the coordination, and the money for the people out there, who are doing the work," Christopher Gardner, the Guard Bureau's acting vice chief, told the members of the newly formed Crisis Action Team at the National Guard's headquarters.
Guard officials were quick to point out that plenty of troops were available for state active duty even though tens of thousands of citizen-soldiers and airmen have been deployed because of the global war against terrorism.
(Editor's note: Master Sgt. Bob Haskell is a journalist with the National Guard Bureau. See related story, Guard, Isabel scrimmage over homeland defense)
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