USA — National Guard Responds to Domestic Disasters

ARLINGTON, Va., April 26, 2011 — About 900 Nation­al Guard mem­bers are respond­ing today to floods, fires, tor­na­does, and oth­er emer­gency sit­u­a­tions in six states.
Guard mem­bers are respond­ing or stag­ing per­son­nel in response to weath­er reports that fore­cast more rain in already flood­ed areas of North Dako­ta, Mis­souri, Indi­ana, as well as tor­na­does in Arkansas and ongo­ing wild­fires in Texas. Oper­a­tions in Min­neso­ta are wrap­ping up.

In North Dako­ta, more than 350 Guard mem­bers are patrolling lev­ees to mon­i­tor pos­si­ble breach­es, man­ning traf­fic con­trol points and serv­ing as quick-reac­tion forces, pro­vid­ing more than 18,000 sand­bags to rein­force lev­ees, accord­ing to North Dako­ta Nation­al Guard reports. 

In Mis­souri, more than 200 ser­vice mem­bers from the 1140th Engi­neer Bat­tal­ion are being acti­vat­ed to assist with a lev­ee breach in Poplar Bluff and sur­round­ing areas in the south­ern por­tion of the state. The engi­neers will assist with sand­bag and evac­u­a­tion oper­a­tions, Mis­souri Nation­al Guard offi­cials said. 

Sup­port also is ongo­ing in Indi­ana, where the Indi­ana Guard recent­ly received a request from the Indi­ana Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty for sand­bag­ging sup­port due to flood­ing in Gib­son, Knox, and Daviess coun­ties. More than 220 Indi­ana Nation­al Guard mem­bers are on duty there. 

In Arkansas, where sev­er­al tor­na­does touched down, more than 100 Army and Air Guard mem­bers are pro­vid­ing route clear­ance, secu­ri­ty and traf­fic con­trol duties. Eighty-five of them are in Vilo­nia, a town just north of Lit­tle Rock, while 20 oth­ers are assist­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty of Hot Springs, with more planned for Gar­land, Faulkn­er and Car­roll coun­ties, said Army Capt. Christo­pher Heath­scott, Arkansas Guard pub­lic affairs officer. 

Else­where, wild­fires in Texas have burned more than 1.6 mil­lion acres and 244 homes. Air­craft from North Car­oli­na, Cal­i­for­nia, and Wyoming equipped with the mod­u­lar air­borne fire­fight­ing sys­tem are respond­ing, as well as four UH-60 Black Hawk heli­copters equipped with fire­fight­ing equipment. 

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

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →