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Guardsmen Help States Hit by Double Whammy
Friday, October 4, 2002
By MSG Bob Haskell
U.S. Army
Special to the American Forces Press Service

Master Sergeant Bob Haskell is assigned to the National Guard Bureau Public Affairs Office, Arlington, Va.



Louisiana citizen-soldiers used their big trucks to evacuate as many as 600 residents from Montegut, southwest of New Orleans, the Associated Press reported, and there were times when at least one truck driver did not know where a flooded road was. His buddies waded through waist-deep water to lead the driver along the road.

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
About 1,700 Louisiana Army and Air National Guard troops were on duty on October's first Friday helping their fellow citizens dig out from Hurricane Lili, the second major storm to hit the Pelican State in as many weeks.

Some troops, barely dried out from Tropical Storm Isidore, which flooded coastal sections of the state about a week earlier, volunteered to help with Lili, said Army Guard Maj. Ed Bush.

More than three times as many troops were needed to operate heavy trucks and other engineer equipment and fly a fleet of 10 helicopters for Lili than had been the case for Isidore, Bush explained. That's because Lili was a Category 2 hurricane packing 100 mph winds when it hit the state's coastal region on Thursday.

Lili had been classified as a Category 4 storm, with winds of 145 mph, before reaching Louisiana, and it was downgraded to a tropical storm after hitting Marsh Island in the middle of the state's Gulf Coast.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

Dan