How the National Guard works during a hurricane.

[Air Force Met]

I posted this on another thread but in case you missed it, I thought many here would like to get a better idea of how the national guard works during a natural disaster....like a major hurricane hitting the Texas coast.

Let me explain a little of how this works...since this very scenario is my job (will explain later): First, the country is divided into armies...1st army (east of the Mississippi) and 5th Army (west of the Mississippi). If a hurricane makes landfall on the Tx or LA coastline, the Gov of TX or LA can mobilize the national guard (of that state) AND the state guard (a group of volunteer soldiers who do weekend drills but don't get paid). The govs then work through FEMA and depending on the damage, FEMA will activate their emergency response team. A part of the team will locate at Ft Sam Houston, San Antonio, TX (for 5th Army AOR) and another part of the team will go to the disaster site. The EOC (Emergency Operations Center) at 5th Army is now activated and guard resources from all the states (22 of them) are now available to the governor of TX or LA through 5th Army.

So...you are not limited to just people from your local area or your state...but you have resources available from the entire continental army (1st or 5th Army). The same thing happens in wildfire season. When a big wildfire in Idaho (for example) occurs...and it gets so big that local, state and national resources can't contain it...they mobilize guard units (through 5th Army) from other states...train them and then send them to Idaho to fight the fire. Back in August of 2001, the Idaho fires (especially the Icicle complex fire) had all resources fighting it but they couldn't contain it. 5th Army was called in and by the end of August, army guard units from Texas and Colorado were fighting wildfires in the state of Idaho.

Now...to how I know this. I am the active duty air force meteorologist in charge of a national guard weather flight who is tasked to support 5th Army during such a crisis. We support them during floods, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes or in case of a NBC (chemical, biological, nuclear) attacks (WMD). We work in the 5th Army EOC (and sometimes deploy with the field teams...known as RTFs) during each crisis with FEMA, CIA, FBI and any other national government agency that is involved. It is my job to coordinate the weather support for any crisis in the 5th Army AOR that might arise. During hurricane season that means forecasting any potential landfall in TX/LA before it occurs and then updating search and rescue efforts on weather impacts after it occurs. For all others (except floods) it is more of an after the fact weather support...like telling the commanding general that dry thunderstorms and winds to 40 kts will hamper fire suppression efforts in Idaho...or that 40 degree weather and lots of rain in Seattle will hamper earthquake relief efforts.

Hope this helps.

[The Dark Knight]

Nice Post!!!! Thanks for the info!!!