By Louisiana National Guard Public Affairs Office
NEW ORLEANS – The Louisiana National Guard is preparing for emergency operations ahead of Tropical Storm Cristobal, June 7, 2020, while continuing its COVID-19 response missions. Louisiana’s Guardsmen are trained, remain ready and fully equipped to stand up at any moment to protect lives and property, maintain communications, and ensure the continuity of operations and government.
In addition to 88 high-water vehicles and 35 rescue boats prepped and staged across south Louisiana, the LANG has helicopters ready to support search and rescue, evacuation and recon missions as needed.
To help better assist coordination efforts at the local level, the LANG has liaison officer teams in 10 parishes and is prepared to support in other parishes as requested.
The LANG transported five 100 kilowatt generators to Grand Isle on Friday ahead of the rising waters in the southeast part of the coast.
Additionally, the LANG has staged three engineer work teams in three parishes to assist with assessing potentially compromised infrastructure and post-storm debris removal and route clearance, if needed.
The LANG will continue to assist in 63 on-going missions during the COVID-19 pandemic response, including medical support, logistics, engineering and planning support.
To date, the LANG has:
· Packaged over 6,408,580 pounds of food
· Delivered over 31.5 million medical commodities throughout the state
· Tested over 73,655 citizens at testing sites
Please visit: https://geauxguard.la.gov/ for the latest Louisiana National Guard releases, photos and videos.
Airmen from the Louisiana Air National Guard, 159th Fighter Wing, conduct annual bus driving training for hurricane response on Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans, LA, June 6, 2020. The 159 FW altered its hurricane response training to include social distancing practices and usage of PPE to account for the COVID-19 virus in the upcoming hurricane season. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Dane St. Pe)
