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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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October
2005
Volume
9 - Number 1 |
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Deployment of National Guard and active military assets
during Katrina Here follows a description of the deployment of National
Guard and DoD resources leading up to and immediately following the landfall
of Hurricane Katrina. Significant deployments or mobilizations are listed
or described by date, by state, and/or by organization.
August 28: The Louisiana National Guard helped state police with evacuations, conducted security screening at the Superdome, established 122 other shelters, and prepared to support relief operations in the storm’s aftermath. The First US Army, which coordinates federal military assistance for disaster relief operations east of the Mississippi River, activated its 24-hour Crisis Action Team and deployed three defense coordinating officers (DCOs) to Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama. The First Army and its DCOs, who are all colonels who have been trained in disaster relief coordination, provide support to civil authorities in accordance with the National Response Plan. Note that DoD assets and support can only be provided upon the request of FEMA and the affected states. One of FEMA’s first requests of DoD assets was the use of federal installations as mobilization sites and operational staging areas; FEMA specifically requested: Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi, Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, Duke Field in Florida and Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. In Mississippi, 853 Army and Air Guard troops were called to active duty and staged at Camp Shelby for the recovery operation. 160 Guardsmen in Alabama prepared for Katrina by sandbagging vulnerable coastal areas and setting up generators and trucks for recovery operations; another 9,000 were available to be deployed. The state of Alabama also activated its Emergency Operations Center in Mobile. The Army Corps of Engineers anticipated having to pump water out of New Orleans and began discussions with partners to preposition assets in southern Louisiana to aid water removal efforts after the storm. August 29: National Guard officials reported that Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida had, respectively, 65, 60, 77, and 74 percent of their troops available for state missions. Across the seventeen states in Katrina’s projected path, 124,000 National Guard troops were available for duty. States were able to offer their neighbors help under the Emergency Mutual Aid Compact that allows National Guard forces to serve in other states. As of 7:00 am, about 3,600 Louisiana National Guardsmen were called to state active duty. The Florida National Guard prepared a shipment of 1,000 cots to supplement Louisiana’s supply. Mississippi called up an additional 600 Guardsmen to join the others already at Camp Shelby; their primary tasks would be to clear roadways and to distribute ice and water until power could be restored to affected areas. In response to requests from Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas were working together to provide the state with four UH-60 Black Hawk and three CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The Arkansas National Guard was preparing two shelters in Monticello and Lake Village with 100 beds each and had 9,000 troops ready to be deployed if needed. In addition, ten states listed an extensive array of heavy equipment available for the cleanup effort including bulldozers, road graders, truck and front-end loaders. (http://www.arng.army.mil/news/news_view.asp?nav_link_id=56&news_id=2254) (http://www.arng.army.mil/news/news_view.asp?nav_link_id=56&news_id=2253) (http://www.arng.army.mil/news/news_view.asp?nav_link_id=56&news_id=2256) (http://www.arng.army.mil/news/news_view.asp?nav_link_id=56&news_id=2274#) (http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18461) |