Enlarge imageWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Wednesday added Navy ships, including helicopter assault vessels and the hospital ship Comfort, and dozens of helicopters to help provide relief in the wake of killer Hurricane Katrina.
The Pentagon also said that 11,000 National Guard troops were now on state duty in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, a 500-bed mobile Army hospital would be sent to New Orleans and 1.5 million cases of battlefield "Meals Ready to Eat," or MREs, were ready to go.
Assistant U.S. Defense Secretary Paul McHale told reporters that some Military Police units were on alert for possible duty quelling looters in the devastated area but it was unlikely President George W. Bush would need to take the unusual step of authorising active-duty troops for civilian police work.
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As many as 800 military personnel could be deployed to help the American Red Cross give medical and other humanitarian care, McHale said.
Up to 48 Army helicopters were prepared to leave Fort Hood, Texas, to join more than 30 Army, Navy and Marine Corps choppers already working the devastated Gulf coast, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.
The military’s Northern Command said the Navy hospital ship Comfort, with 12 operating rooms and 1,000 beds, would soon depart Baltimore for a weeklong trip to the area, and the helicopter carrier USS Bataan and another warship were conducting rescue missions from off the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.
The USS Iwo Jima, another helicopter assault ship, was also preparing to sail from Norfolk, Virginia, with at least three other vessels and was due to arrive in four or five days, the Navy said.
The Bataan and the Iowa Jima carry heavy MH-53 and HH-60 medical-evacuation and supply helicopters.
LOW PROFILE FOR REGULAR TROOPS
No immediate order was given to commit large numbers of active-duty federal troops to the ground where Katrina slammed ashore on Monday, and McHale said there were adequate numbers of National Guard personnel despite a heavy drain on the country’s part-time state forces because of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Speaking of the military response to one of the worst U.S. natural disasters, Whitman said, "This is a developing situation and we are going to make sure that the department provides the necessary help."
The military set up a task force at Camp Shelby, Mississippi to co-ordinate support for the disaster-relief effort led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or
FEMA.
The moves came as the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans planned to continue helping the National Guard drop 3,000-pound (1360 kg) sandbags into an opening of a protective levee that has caused the flooding of most of the tourist mecca two days after Katrina ripped ashore.
Initial attempts failed plug a 200-foot (60-metre) gap in the levee system with the sandbags and concrete barriers, but officials said they would keep trying.
The Corps of Engineers said it could begin on Wednesday to help drop the giant sandbags into an opening of the 17th Street Canal floodwall from twin-rotor helicopters to try to fill the breach.
Guard officials said that after the breaks in the floodwall were repaired, the corps planned to break an opening in a lower portion of another levee around New Orleans so trapped water could begin flowing out of the city.
The Northern Command, which is co-ordinating help to FEMA, said that the first of eight military "swift water" rescue boats and elite civilian crews were flown in from California overnight.
It said typical aid provided by active-duty troops in disasters included logistics, communications and medical care.
