So exactly how prepared was the LA Nat'l Guard?

We have been busy putting together the timeline of Katrina.  This is an important step in determining responsibility and accountability.  But another component that cannot be overlooked or underestimated is a solid determination of exactly what resources were available to the local and state authorities at the time.

You can issue all the emergency proclamations you want, but if you don't have the logistics in place, your words will be hollow and people will die.  As we well know now.

Join me below for more questions.

I've seen articles that say that most of the LA National Guard is serving in Iraq and that all of the critical equipment needed for Katrina was sent to Iraq as well.

Then I've been hit upside the head by conservatives who insist that Lousisiana had all it needed to address the ravages of the hurricane and that it was simply the incompetency of Blanco and Nagin that undid the relief effort.

I do not believe that for one moment, but I need to find the sources for the hard facts that are rquired to refutes such spurious claims.  I've tried google to little avail.

What to kossacks have in terms of hard facts?  And should we not add this to dkosopedia?

Thanks for you help.

•  Communications gear

  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/18/151117/690

  If you go to the full story posted at ePM or Booman you'll see the actual linkage, the reference at the end of my DKos diary speaks to the lack of satellite phones because they were all in Iraq.   One sat phone for the whole Mississippi Coast.

  by kfred on Mon Sep 19, 2005 at 10:39:05 AM PDT

•  We Had All We Needed?? Hahahahaha!

  N.O. had never before had a mandatory evacuation. The roads were clogged and could not have fit more vehicles.  The lake floodwalls had never broken before.  I do not doubt that in retrospect Nagin and Blanco could do more to line up buses, barges, trains, something, though I don't know how they'd find the drivers, and they wouldn't be able to make return trips.  But, they had hardly any time.  It was Sat. before the storm track shifted to N.O., and there was some feeling it might keep shifting west, as it had been doing all week.  So it was Sat. night before the first evacuation call.  If they start issuing evacuations simply because storms are in the gulf, it will be like cring wolf, and people will stop paying attention.  So Sunday to problem was getting the evacuees into the contraflow system set up for the highways, and Monday little to do but hang on.  By that time FEMA could have had supplies and equipment staged in Alex LA, Jackson MS, Monroe LA, ready to move south.  

  Post-Hurricane Q&A with the LA Governor here:

  http://hootenanny.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/19/113920/293

  by Hootenanny on Mon Sep 19, 2005 at 10:52:45 AM PDT

•  Louisiana, MIssissippi guard pretty much out of it

  There has been a lot of talk about national guard being in Iraq and unable to to be used for Katrina. With the last minute call evacuation and the fact that the hurricane devistated not only New Orleans but most of Louisiana, Mississippi, etc., the local guard was going to be pretty much taken out.  With power and phones out, the roads clogged, and the guardsmen evacuating with their families, the ability to muster, equip and transport the guard was going to be seriously inhibited.

  In a disaster of this size, which is unprecedented, the guard that is relevent is that in the nearby states which still have power, communications, roads and the ability to muster and deploy.

  by william shipley on Mon Sep 19, 2005 at 11:01:21 AM PDT