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Hurricane Rita

Governors give few details, but Pentagon prepares forces

WASHINGTON - About 3,400 soldiers of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division stood ready for post-Rita relief duty as the hurricane moved toward shore. Air Force planes evacuated thousands of people, and dozens of military helicopters were available for the aftermath.

The full scope of the military's role in support of state National Guard and civilian relief efforts, however, was not clear Friday, in part because state officials had not clarified their needs, a Pentagon spokesman said.

To date, the governors of Louisiana and Texas have requested 25,000 active-duty troops but have provided few details on how they might be used.

What did seem clear was the difference between what the military was doing to prepare for Rita and what it did in advance of Katrina. This time the military was providing more capability to evacuate people, even before the hurricane made landfall, and it was organizing its command structure further in advance.

The military also sent satellite phones and satellite long-range radios to the area expected to be Rita's path, which it did not do with Katrina. Communication breakdowns were among the biggest problems in the aftermath of Katrina.

Even with the advantage of hindsight, state and federal officials faced some communications challenges again this week, primarily in translating troop requests by the states into specific deployment orders.

Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco put in writing this week a request to the Defense Department for 15,000 active-duty troops. That is being answered with the provision of fuel, medical assistance and search-and-rescue capability, Di Rita said, but federal officials were seeking more clarity from the governor's office on other specific needs.

"Fifteen thousand active federal military could be 15,000 guys in tanks. It could be 15,000 guys with hospital gowns on. And you do kind of have to know what you're ordering when you do something like that," he said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked for 10,000 federal troops but had not put it in writing with details by Friday morning, Di Rita said.

The Pentagon spokesman said forces and equipment will be provided as needed, but everyone must be flexible.

"You're going to see a lot of people doing their best to anticipate and you're going to see a lot of people calling audibles," he said, referring to the practice in football of a quarterback changing the play at the last moment.

Flying 39 missions Thursday and Friday, Air Force C-130 and C-17 transport planes flew 3,500 special-needs patients from Beaumont, Texas, and several hundred from Houston and Lake Charles, La., to safer ground outside the hurricane zone. The Air Force said it had additional C-130 crews on standby at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark.

The military also was sending 340 medical staff to nonmilitary medical sites in Texas, and it was preparing to respond to a request for the capability of feeding 500,000 people at 15 locations in the state, Pentagon officials said.

The Army was preparing to provide 125 buses to help Texas evacuations, said Col. Ken Madden in the Army's operations center at the Pentagon, where officers were monitoring the hurricane Friday.

Madden said the Army was anticipating requests for active-duty troops from Fort Hood, Texas, one of the Army's largest posts and home to the 1st Cavalry Division. It sent more than 1,000 soldiers to New Orleans.

Maj. Amy Hannah, spokeswoman for the 82nd Airborne, which has had more than 3,000 soldiers in New Orleans since early September, said her unit was standing by for possible orders to reposition. Other officials said some elements of the 82nd Airborne might be sent to southwestern Louisiana.

A U-2 spy plane, flying from Beale Air Force Base, Calif., flew over the expected hurricane impact area along the Gulf Coast from Brownsville, Texas, to Lake Charles, La., on Friday and took photos that will be used to measure Rita's damage and plan relief efforts by comparing before-and-after imagery of the area.

Several Navy vessels, including the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima and the hospital ship USNS Comfort, were in the eastern gulf preparing to move into the storm-damaged area.

As in the case of Katrina, the federal troops this time plan to play no law enforcement role. To do so, the president would have to invoke rarely used powers.

[Last modified September 24, 2005, 01:01:06]