RELEASE #17
UPDATE (Sept. 6, 4 p.m.)
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – As directed by the Secretary of Defense and in accordance with the National Response Plan, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) is supporting the Dept. of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
USNORTHCOM is providing and/or coordinating the following support:
New
- More than 250 DoD medical personnel are currently in place in the affected area to support humanitarian medical assistance. Navy ships in the area have medical personnel ashore to assist operations.
- The Army’s 54th Mortuary Affairs Company is preparing to move to Louisiana to assist the FEMA task force with the recovery and processing of the deceased. A four-person team from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner’s office is already in Louisiana to assist with DNA sampling/identification.
Petty Officer 1st Class Dave Brusby scans the streets of New Orleans while conducting search and rescue missions Sept. 4 from a SH-60 Helicopter from Helicopter Squadron Two Eight stationed in Norfolk, Va., currently embarked onboard the multi-purpose Amphibious Assault Ship USS Bataan (LHD-5). Bataan’s involvement in the humanitarian assistance operations is an effort led by the DoD in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Photo credit: Petty Officer 1st Class Ken J. Riley
- Remaining elements of the 82nd Airborne Division and 1st Cavalry Division are expected to arrive in the area by Wednesday, completing their deployments. Active duty personnel from all services continue to join the relief operations along the Gulf Coast.
- 40 trucks from Mexico are en-route to the Texas border to deliver relief supplies. Personnel from the U.S. Fifth Army are coordinating border crossing for the convoy, scheduled to arrive in Texas Wednesday.
Updates
- More than 14,850 active duty members are currently supporting the disaster relief efforts in the U.S. Gulf Coast. This is in addition to the 42,990 Army and Air National Guard members already supporting operations in the area.
- 23 ships (17 Navy, 6 Coast Guard) are on station in the affected area, with three additional ships en route – USNS Comfort due Sept. 9.
- To date over 14 million liters of water, 48 million pounds of ice and 8.7 million Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) have been delivered to areas in Mississippi and Louisiana.
- Three Cruise ships with a total capacity of 7,116 are on station in Galveston, Texas and Mobile, Ala, receiving evacuees for extended temporary housing. The ships were contracted through Military Sealift Command to support FEMA’s request to relocate evacuees from the U.S. Gulf Coast area.
Ongoing
- FEMA and DoD are working with the USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance to process various offers of aid from more than 80 countries and international organizations.
- USS Harry S Truman is stationed off Biloxi, Miss., to assist with operations
- USS Bataan is prepared to receive patients in its hospital, and personnel are ashore assisting medical relief efforts.
- USS Iwo Jima is serving as the command and control center for the forward headquarters of Joint Task Force-Katrina.
- Firefighting efforts are being supported by National Guard aviation. Two specially equipped Air Force C-130 aircraft are at Naval Air Station Pensacola and available to fly firefighting missions assigned by regional fire officials.
- USNS Altair and USNS Pollux are off the coast of New Orleans. Altair will provide 130 tons of water, and Pollux will provide 1.5 million gallons of fuel to support relief operations by National Guard troops and emergency service workers.
- The Dept. of Health and Human Services has 9 mobile Federal Medical Shelter facilities at military installations along the Gulf Coast. Each facility can accommodate 250 patients. Four facilities are located at Ft. Polk, Louisiana; three at Naval Air Station Meridian, Miss.; and two at Air National Guard Station Meridian, Miss.
- USNORTHCOM established Joint Task Force (JTF) Katrina to act as the military’s on-scene command in support of FEMA. Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, commander of the First Army in Fort Gillem, Ga., is the JTF-commander.
- Joint Forces Command is providing Department of Defense leased property at the former England AFB in Louisiana as an intermediate staging base to support hurricane response in the state of Louisiana. This will serve as a staging point for National Guard personnel arriving from other states to support the Louisiana relief efforts.
- JTF-Civil Support (JTF-CS) is providing a joint planning augmentation cell to provide domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) consequence management planning capabilities to JTF-Katrina.
- Defense Coordinating Officers are assisting state officials in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arkansas with the large numbers of people relocated to those states. DCOs continue to coordinate DoD aid to FEMA and local official in Louisiana and Mississippi.
- Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark.; Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.; Naval Air Station Meridian, Miss.; Barksdale Air Force Base, La.; Alexandria, La.; Ft. Polk, La.; and Keesler AFB, Miss., have been designated as operational staging areas to expedite the movement of relief supplies and emergency personnel to affected areas.
- USNORTHCOM’s 24-hour Joint Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., has been augmented with additional personnel to facilitate any additional requests for assistance that may come from FEMA representatives.
The impact of providing such assistance will not adversely affect military preparedness. The DoD is fully engaged in supporting the massive interagency effort to save lives, reduce suffering and protect the infrastructure of the homeland. For more information on USNORTHCOM involvement in national disaster relief efforts, log onto our website at www.northcom.milor contact USNORTHCOM Public Affairs, at 719.554.9618. To contact Joint Task Force Katrina Public Affairs, call 601.558.4214.