thedrifter
09-03-05, 07:08 AM
September 3, 2005
Military Dealt With Combination of Obstacles Before Reaching Victims
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID S. CLOUD
WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 - As thousands of National Guard soldiers entered New Orleans on Friday to help restore order and deliver emergency supplies, Pentagon and Guard officials said the military's response had been slowed by a combination of physical obstacles created by the storm compounded by a cumbersome bureaucratic process for sending federal forces to assist in natural disasters.
State officials in Louisiana and Mississippi said they had overcome the absence of some 8,000 of their National Guard troops who are deployed to Iraq by drawing on Guard members from other states, but not until after the storm had passed and the magnitude of the emergency had become clear. Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré, commander of the joint task force coordinating military efforts in hurricane relief, defended the prestorm preparations by the National Guard and Pentagon, including the positioning of 10,000 National Guard troops in five Gulf Coast states.
But he acknowledged that the storm damage had caught military planners off guard. Floodwaters, debris-clogged streets and crippled communications hampered initial rescue efforts. States outside the most heavily damaged area held off sending more Guard members until the storm had passed. Even after the Guard reinforcements began arriving, he said it took a long time to load and dispatch relief trucks with supplies.
"If you ever have 20,000 people come to supper, you know what I'm talking about," General Honoré told CNN in New Orleans on Friday.
By Friday, about 19,500 National Guard troops had arrived in Louisiana and Mississippi, and 6,500 in New Orleans itself, mostly military police officers. Senior Pentagon and military officials said the National Guard commitment to the hurricane zone would grow to 30,000 in coming days. Over all, the active and reserve military commitment to hurricane relief could reach 50,000 troops. The aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman is steaming to the Gulf Coast to serve as a command post for the various warships contributing to disaster relief.
By this weekend, more than 500 marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., will arrive in Louisiana by air and sea, bringing with them equipment for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, including water purification devices, seven-ton trucks, dump trucks, forklifts, generators and Humvees.
Over all, more than 150 military and Coast Guard helicopters are now ferrying supplies, conducting search and rescue missions, and other operations. U-2 spy planes have been sent aloft for a better picture of hurricane and flood damage.
Army officials said units at several bases, including Fort Hood, Tex., and Fort Bragg, N.C., were notified Thursday to stand by in case thousands of soldiers and dozens of helicopters were needed to assist in the rescue and relief operations. The Pentagon's response in this case, which critics have called slow and insufficient, illustrates the tension between civilian control of domestic disasters and how far forward the military can prepare in advance of official requests for help.
The five states in the storm's path had each called up their own National Guard troops, including about 7,000 soldiers and airmen who were mobilized in Louisiana and Mississippi, said Maj. Gen. Ron Young, a senior staff officer for the National Guard Bureau. But other states waited until after the scale of the destruction became clear to call up their own Guard units and send them to Louisiana and Mississippi. Governors in those states would not have called up those units without assurance that they would get federal disaster assistance to pay for the additional troops, he added.
President Bush declared a state of emergency on Saturday, before the storm struck, but too late for troops from other states to position themselves closer before the storm hit, even if they had been called up.
"They could not stand up 5,000 and 6,000 Guardsmen on state active duty not knowing if they were even going to be needed," General Young said. It is not entirely clear yet what impact the American operations in Iraq have had on the hurricane relief mission. With more than 25,000 of the 40,000 marines stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., deployed to western Iraq, a Marine spokesman, Capt. David Nevers, said it was more "challenging" to assemble the right mix of marines and aircraft to deploy to Louisiana, but still workable.
Some critics have attributed the slow response partly to the deployment of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guards to Iraq. Military officials acknowledged that the Iraq deployments strained the Guard ranks in those states, but the governors could request Guard soldiers from other states.
By happenstance, the 4,000 troops of the Louisiana Army National Guard's 256th Brigade Combat Team are ending their yearlong tour in Iraq and will begin returning home in the next few weeks.
The planning complexities also slowed the Pentagon's preparations for sending active duty units. Officials said that though Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld told the uniformed services to be "forward-leaning" in readying units for deployment, military officials did not want to appear to be elbowing aside civilian officials in responding to the disaster. Nor could they anticipate the scale of the damage.
As a result, the Pentagon planning started only days before the storm reached the Gulf Coast and even then was small-scale and impromptu.
Navy officials, for example, said their prehurricane planning began last Saturday when a half-dozen ship commanders in Norfolk, Va., and Baltimore were warned their vessels could have to deploy to the gulf to assist. Even a Navy vessel that is on call for possible deployment to sea takes 24 to 48 hours to get under way, but these had to be loaded with supplies for storm victims, a process that took several days. The first of these ships did not leave until Wednesday.
Thom Shanker and Eric Lipton contributed reporting for this article.
Ellie
Military Dealt With Combination of Obstacles Before Reaching Victims
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID S. CLOUD
WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 - As thousands of National Guard soldiers entered New Orleans on Friday to help restore order and deliver emergency supplies, Pentagon and Guard officials said the military's response had been slowed by a combination of physical obstacles created by the storm compounded by a cumbersome bureaucratic process for sending federal forces to assist in natural disasters.
State officials in Louisiana and Mississippi said they had overcome the absence of some 8,000 of their National Guard troops who are deployed to Iraq by drawing on Guard members from other states, but not until after the storm had passed and the magnitude of the emergency had become clear. Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré, commander of the joint task force coordinating military efforts in hurricane relief, defended the prestorm preparations by the National Guard and Pentagon, including the positioning of 10,000 National Guard troops in five Gulf Coast states.
But he acknowledged that the storm damage had caught military planners off guard. Floodwaters, debris-clogged streets and crippled communications hampered initial rescue efforts. States outside the most heavily damaged area held off sending more Guard members until the storm had passed. Even after the Guard reinforcements began arriving, he said it took a long time to load and dispatch relief trucks with supplies.
"If you ever have 20,000 people come to supper, you know what I'm talking about," General Honoré told CNN in New Orleans on Friday.
By Friday, about 19,500 National Guard troops had arrived in Louisiana and Mississippi, and 6,500 in New Orleans itself, mostly military police officers. Senior Pentagon and military officials said the National Guard commitment to the hurricane zone would grow to 30,000 in coming days. Over all, the active and reserve military commitment to hurricane relief could reach 50,000 troops. The aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman is steaming to the Gulf Coast to serve as a command post for the various warships contributing to disaster relief.
By this weekend, more than 500 marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., will arrive in Louisiana by air and sea, bringing with them equipment for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, including water purification devices, seven-ton trucks, dump trucks, forklifts, generators and Humvees.
Over all, more than 150 military and Coast Guard helicopters are now ferrying supplies, conducting search and rescue missions, and other operations. U-2 spy planes have been sent aloft for a better picture of hurricane and flood damage.
Army officials said units at several bases, including Fort Hood, Tex., and Fort Bragg, N.C., were notified Thursday to stand by in case thousands of soldiers and dozens of helicopters were needed to assist in the rescue and relief operations. The Pentagon's response in this case, which critics have called slow and insufficient, illustrates the tension between civilian control of domestic disasters and how far forward the military can prepare in advance of official requests for help.
The five states in the storm's path had each called up their own National Guard troops, including about 7,000 soldiers and airmen who were mobilized in Louisiana and Mississippi, said Maj. Gen. Ron Young, a senior staff officer for the National Guard Bureau. But other states waited until after the scale of the destruction became clear to call up their own Guard units and send them to Louisiana and Mississippi. Governors in those states would not have called up those units without assurance that they would get federal disaster assistance to pay for the additional troops, he added.
President Bush declared a state of emergency on Saturday, before the storm struck, but too late for troops from other states to position themselves closer before the storm hit, even if they had been called up.
"They could not stand up 5,000 and 6,000 Guardsmen on state active duty not knowing if they were even going to be needed," General Young said. It is not entirely clear yet what impact the American operations in Iraq have had on the hurricane relief mission. With more than 25,000 of the 40,000 marines stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., deployed to western Iraq, a Marine spokesman, Capt. David Nevers, said it was more "challenging" to assemble the right mix of marines and aircraft to deploy to Louisiana, but still workable.
Some critics have attributed the slow response partly to the deployment of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guards to Iraq. Military officials acknowledged that the Iraq deployments strained the Guard ranks in those states, but the governors could request Guard soldiers from other states.
By happenstance, the 4,000 troops of the Louisiana Army National Guard's 256th Brigade Combat Team are ending their yearlong tour in Iraq and will begin returning home in the next few weeks.
The planning complexities also slowed the Pentagon's preparations for sending active duty units. Officials said that though Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld told the uniformed services to be "forward-leaning" in readying units for deployment, military officials did not want to appear to be elbowing aside civilian officials in responding to the disaster. Nor could they anticipate the scale of the damage.
As a result, the Pentagon planning started only days before the storm reached the Gulf Coast and even then was small-scale and impromptu.
Navy officials, for example, said their prehurricane planning began last Saturday when a half-dozen ship commanders in Norfolk, Va., and Baltimore were warned their vessels could have to deploy to the gulf to assist. Even a Navy vessel that is on call for possible deployment to sea takes 24 to 48 hours to get under way, but these had to be loaded with supplies for storm victims, a process that took several days. The first of these ships did not leave until Wednesday.
Thom Shanker and Eric Lipton contributed reporting for this article.
Ellie