Enlarge imageWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military will send 10,000 more state National Guard troops to Louisiana and Mississippi by late Friday, swelling to 21,000 the number on duty in four hurricane-battered Gulf states to control lawlessness and provide aid, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, head of the military’s National Guard Bureau, said one-third of the 21,000 troops will be dedicated to help civilian police keep law and order in the devastated region, which also includes Alabama and Florida.
Blum said the governors of the four states, especially Louisiana and Mississippi where looting has taken place in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s assault on Monday, were worried about lawbreaking.
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"Right now, we’re worried about law and order, food and medical care," Blum said.
The military deployment, part of one of the biggest U.S. domestic disaster relief efforts ever undertaken, also includes warships, dozens of rescue helicopters and hundreds of trucks, the Pentagon said.
Blum said that dozens of heavy military trucks will begin moving in the coming days and that the fresh troops will include communications, engineering and medical units for the devastated area.
"Essentially, we’re going to double the force in the days ahead," the general told a Pentagon briefing.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Pentagon said it was adding at least seven Navy ships, including two helicopter assault vessels and the hospital ship Comfort, and at least 60 big supply and rescue helicopters to the relief effort.
At least one 500-bed mobile Army hospital was already being prepared to go to New Orleans and the military readied 1.5 million cases of battlefield "Meals Ready to Eat," or MREs, for residents of Louisiana and Mississippi.
WARSHIPS AND FLOATING HOSPITAL
The U.S. military’s Northern Command said the Comfort, with 12 operating rooms and 1,000 beds, would depart Baltimore for a weeklong trip to the area, and the helicopter carrier USS Bataan and another warship were already 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 "medivac" (medical evacuation) and supply helicopters.
Blum stressed that the National Guard troops were not being sent to take over law and order duties, only to "supplement" local police forces.
He also said that the fresh deployment of Guard troops would not in any way change planned rotation of thousands of Guard troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, where fighting with insurgents has put a major strain on the U.S. military.
Assistant U.S. Defense Secretary Paul McHale said some Military Police units were on alert for possible duty quelling looting but it was unlikely President George W. Bush would need to take the unusual step of authorising active-duty troops for civilian police work.
U.S. law bars federal troops from performing domestic law enforcement duties, but state laws permit governors to use their National Guard troops for such work.
The military set up a Joint Task Force at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to co-ordinate support for the disaster relief effort led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.
