Washington – As Louisiana officials scramble resources to meet the challenge of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, they are missing a high-profile asset: 35 percent of the state’s National Guard now deployed in Iraq and elsewhere.
Despite the missing troops, Pentagon officials say they have enough resources.
“The National Guard is well prepared to answer every call to support operations,” said Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense. “We have a state and a federal mission and we perform it very well.”
More than 6,500 Louisiana Air National Guard and Army National Guard troops are available in the state to help deal with Hurricane Katrina, she said. They are assisting with everything from security and screening at a large emergency shelter in New Orleans’ Superdome stadium to helping state police with evacuations.
Krenke said the goal of the National Guard is to have at least half of the reservists available at all times for emergencies. Several states affected by the storm have more than that – Mississippi has 60 percent, Alabama has 77 percent and Florida has 74 percent of its National Guard troops available, she said.
Michael O’Hanlon, a homeland security expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said that state officials should pay close attention to the percentage of reservists overseas but that the current number of absent reservists should not be cause for alarm.
“History suggests that we shouldn’t be too nervous. … We rarely use more than a few thousand people even after big natural disasters,” he said.
In addition, he said that cooperation between states has improved since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that equipment and personnel are shared in the case of a major disaster.
Today, the Florida National Guard was preparing to ship 1,000 cots to Louisiana for emergency shelters, and the Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Arkansas National Guards were coordinating efforts to provide Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters requested by Mississippi.
