USA — National Guard Prepares for Southeast Storm Support

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2011 — As a win­ter storm rolls through the south­ern Unit­ed States, some gov­er­nors have placed their Nation­al Guard on state active duty.
The Arkansas Nation­al Guard is pro­vid­ing 10 Humvees and 24 sol­diers for state active duty to con­duct safe­ty and well­ness checks along Inter­state 30 between Lit­tle Rock and Malvern. 

They also are sched­uled to open the Malvern and Ben­ton armories for shel­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties to accom­mo­date strand­ed motorists. 

The Alaba­ma Nation­al Guard has acti­vat­ed two sol­diers as liai­son offi­cers for the State Emer­gency Oper­a­tion Cen­ter, and will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the sit­u­a­tion, offi­cials said. 

Mean­while, the Geor­gia Nation­al Guard is prepar­ing equip­ment and issu­ing plans to sup­port com­mu­ni­ties if the gov­er­nor orders their mobilization. 

“Sol­diers and air­men of the Geor­gia Nation­al Guard stand ready to do our part to help local com­mu­ni­ties recov­er, if we are need­ed,” said Army Maj. Gen. William Nes­bitt, Georgia’s adju­tant general. 

Guards­men already con­duct­ing their month­ly drills yes­ter­day pre­pared Humvees, loaded equip­ment, pre-posi­tioned sup­plies and updat­ed plans to mobi­lize should the gov­er­nor call upon them, offi­cials said. 

The Geor­gia Guard’s Joint Forces Head­quar­ters also brought its Joint Oper­a­tions Cen­ter staffing up to oper­at­ing capac­i­ty yes­ter­day to mon­i­tor the storm and man­age any poten­tial Nation­al Guard response. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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