WASHINGTON, D.C. — Another 10,000 National Guard troops are being sent
to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, raising their number to about
40,000, but questions linger about the speed with which troops were
deployed.
JOSHUA LOTT / AP
Members of the National Guard help Hurricane Katrina victims
evacuate via helicopter from the New Orleans Convention Center on
Friday.
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Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the
rescue in New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm
struck - a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco
help from his state's National Guard last Sunday, the day before
Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed
to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late
Thursday.
California troops just began arriving in Louisiana on Friday, three days
after flood waters devastated New Orleans and chaos broke out.
In fact, when New Orleans' levees gave way to deadly flooding on
Tuesday, Louisiana's National Guard had received help from troops in
only three other states: Ohio, which had nine people in Louisiana then;
Oklahoma, 89; and Texas, 625, figures provided by the National Guard
show.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Cutler, who leads the Michigan National Guard, said he
anticipated a call for police units and started preparing them, but
couldn't go until states in the hurricane zone asked them to come.
"We could have had people on the road Tuesday," Cutler said. "We have to
wait and respond to their need."
The Michigan National Guard was asked for military police by Mississippi
late Tuesday and by Louisiana officials late Wednesday. The state sent
182 MPs to Mississippi on Friday and had 242 headed to Louisiana on
Saturday.
Typically, the authority to use the National Guard in a state role lies
with the governor, who tells his or her adjutant general to order
individual Guard units to begin duty. Turnaround time varies depending
on the number of troops involved, their location and their assigned
missions.
One factor that may have further complicated post-Katrina deployment
arose when Louisiana discovered it needed Guardsmen to do more law
enforcement duty because a large portion of the New Orleans police force
was not functioning, according to Lt. Gen. Steven H. Blum, chief of the
National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon.
Because the agreement that was already in existence for states to
contribute Guard troops to Louisiana did not include a provision on
their use in law enforcement, Blum said, Gov. Blanco had to get separate
written agreements authorizing Guardsmen to do police-type duty.
Still, Blum said, this took only minutes to execute.
With many states' Guard units depleted by deployments to Iraq, Katrina's
aftermath was almost certain from the beginning to require help from
faraway states.
Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress are just beginning to ask
why one of the National Guard's most trusted roles - disaster relief -
was so uneven, delayed and chaotic this time around.
Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said the situation has shown major breakdowns
in the nation's emergency response capabilities. "There must be some
accountability in this process after the crisis is addressed," he said.
Democrat Ben Nelson, Nebraska's other senator, said he now questions
National Guard leaders' earlier assertions that they had enough
resources to respond to natural disasters even with the Iraq war.
"I'm going to ask that question again," Nelson said. "Do we have enough
(troops), and if we do, why were they not deployed sooner?"
President Bush was asked that question Friday as he toured the
hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast area and said he disagrees with criticism
the military is stretched too thin.
"We've got a job to defend this country in the war on terror, and we've
got a job to bring aid and comfort to the people of the Gulf Coast, and
we'll do both," he said.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., plans to
make oversight of the Defense Department, the National Guard and their
assistance his top priority when he returns to Washington next week from
an overseas trips, spokesman John Ullyot said Friday.
Bush had the legal authority to order the National Guard to the disaster
area himself, as he did after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks . But the
troops four years ago were deployed for national security protection,
and presidents of both parties traditionally defer to governors to
deploy their own National Guardsmen and request help from other states
when it comes to natural disasters.
In addition to Guard help, the federal government could have activated,
but did not, a major air support plan under a pre-existing contract with
airlines. The program, called Civilian Reserve Air Fleet, lets the
government quickly put private cargo and passenger planes into service.
The CRAF provision has been activated twice, once for the Persian Gulf
War and again for the Iraq war.
Associated Press writers Kathy Barks Hoffman in Lansing, Mich.; Barry
Massey in Santa Fe, N.M.; Chuck Brown in Omaha, Neb.; Paul Davenport in
Phoenix and Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this story.
