Guard troops to help neighbors combat Katrina
By Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
August 30, 2005
ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, Aug. 30, 2005) – Army National Guard Special Forces boat crews were prepared to leave their Florida homes and conduct search and rescue operations in flooded, devastated communities in Mississippi or Louisiana. A joint National Guard team from Florida was set to go to Jackson, Miss., to help that state manage its recovery from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.
It’s payback time, said Lt. Col. Ron Tittle about the measures that the Florida National Guard are prepared to take to help Guard members in other states support a massive relief effort after the deadly hurricane hammered New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast, including Gulfport, Miss., with Category 4 winds and blinding rain Aug. 29.
Even though National Guard forces have been heavily engaged in the Global War on Terrorism, nearly 124,000 troops were available for duty in the 17 states along the storm’s projected path, the National Guard Bureau reported. That averages to 78 percent of those states’ total Guard strength. Another 6,000 were available in Texas, and a Guard spokesman pointed out that tens of thousands more could be called in from other states.
Equipment poised for cleanup
Ten states listed an extensive array of available heavy equipment, including bulldozers, road graders, trucks and front-end loaders, to help clean up.
That underscored the importance that Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, places on replacing or upgrading the equipment that Guard troops employ overseas so they can perform their homeland security missions when they return.
More than 6,200 Army and Air National Guard troops were on duty in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida the Monday that Katrina struck with
145-mph winds and blinding rain that reportedly submerged entire New Orleans neighborhoods up to the rooflines and peeled away part of the Superdome.
Missions range from security to rescue
Two hundred Louisiana troops assisted civilian authorities by conducting security and screening missions at the Superdome where a Guard spokesman reported that more than 10,000 people sought shelter the Sunday night before the storm struck early Monday morning.
Potential Guard missions included assisting law enforcement agencies with traffic control and security, transporting and distributing food, water and ice, search and rescue, and providing generators.
Katrina first struck southern Florida as a much weaker storm on Aug. 25-26 before picking up strength in the Gulf of Mexico and clobbering the Gulf Coast three days later. About a thousand Florida Guard troops were on duty during the weekend, said Tittle, the National Guard spokesman for Florida which has been hit by six hurricanes in a little over a year.
After 6 storms, states ready to reciprocate
“Gov. [Jeb] Bush told us to take care of Florida first but to be ready to help others,” Tittle said. “Other states have come to our support, and now we’re ready to help them.”
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. C. Mark Bowen, the adjutant general for Alabama, promised his counterpart in Mississippi, Maj. Gen. Harold A. Cross, that Alabama Guard troops were ready to support Mississippi under the provisions of the Emergency Mutual Aid Compact that makes it possible for National Guard forces to serve in other states and territories.
“Our priority is protecting life and property here in Alabama,” said Lt. Col. Bob Horton. More than 280 Guard troops were on duty in the southern part of the state by that stormy Monday afternoon, National Guard officials reported. But Alabama made it clear that a lot more were available if they were needed.
“Although not on active duty at this time, Alabama has approximately 9,000 Guardsmen available to respond to disaster relief operations here in Alabama and are also prepared to assist neighboring states of Louisiana and Mississippi as required,” stated an Aug. 29 news release.
President George Bush declared federal states of emergency in all four affected states.
High-wheeled vehicles ready to plow waters
More than 3,600 were on duty in Louisiana, primed to support civilian authorities with aviation assets, with security personnel to police and sheriffs departments, and with engineer equipment including high-wheeled vehicles that could plow through flood waters to rescue stranded victims.
Another 1,700 were ready to roll in Mississippi.
“Several hundred are staged at Camp Shelby, ready to move forward after the storm comes ashore,” said Lt. Col. Tim Powell. “We’re ready for evacuations, search and rescue, and clearing debris from roadways. We see that as a huge mission.” Camp Shelby is about 60 miles north of the Mississippi coast.
Katrina was reported to be the most powerful storm to hit Mississippi since Hurricane Camille struck with Category 5 fury in 1969, killing 143 people along the Gulf Coast.
Teams of engineers with heavy equipment and squads of military police were positioned in Mississippi’s southern most counties – Hancock, Harrison and Jackson – which were expected to be hit the hardest this time, Powell said. But he predicted that Katrina would be much more than a coastal storm, and Blum cautioned Guard officials to regard Katrina as a marathon, not a sprint. Officials were prepared to deploy Guard troops to flooded communities as Katrina works its way north as a tropical storm. They were confident they have the people to do the job.
(Editor’s note: Master Sgt. Bob Haskell writes for the National Guard Bureau.)
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