The hurricane made landfall in Louisiana Sunday with 150 mph winds, dumping rain throughout the region, causing widespread flooding and power outages.
About 5,000 Guard members from the Louisiana National Guard were staged to protect lives and property, maintain communications and ensure continuity of operations and government. The rest of the support is from Guard units in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas.
In addition to 195 high-water vehicles and 73 rescue boats prepped and staged across south Louisiana, the LANG has 34 helicopters ready to support search and rescue, evacuation and reconnaissance missions as needed.
To help better assist coordination efforts at the local level, the LANG has liaison officer teams in 23 parishes and is prepared to support in other parishes as requested.
The regional staging area in Tangipahoa Parish has trucks and trailers ready to deliver food and water to affected people.
Additionally, the LANG placed engineer work teams in three parishes to assist with assessing potentially compromised infrastructure and post-storm debris removal and route clearance, if needed.
More than 320 members of the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 251st Military Police Company in Lexington and Savannah, 1172nd Transportation Company in Memphis and Waynesboro, and the 1176th Transportation Company in Dresden, Jacksboro and Smyrna were preparing to depart Monday for Louisiana to assist with relief and recovery operations.
The Tennessee Guard members will assist with security in the affected areas, provide high water vehicles to support rescue and recovery operations, and provide vehicles to transport people out of the affected areas, among other tasks.
By Sgt. 1st Class Denis Ricou, Louisiana National Guard