BATON ROUGE, La. - With the majority of the state without electricity and in need of food, water and basic necessities, it is a priority for all emergency response teams to provide assistance as quickly as possible.
"After the landfall of Gustav, our focus was to save lives beginning immediately at dawn Tuesday. By 11:00 a.m., we had flown the affected area across the state and realized that search and rescue wasn't required," said Col. Douglas J. Mouton, operations officer for the Louisiana National Guard.
"We immediately shifted our focus from search and rescue to food and water distribution which is a significant operational transition. Now, here we are 24 hours after that focus shifted, standing up food, water, ice and tarp distribution points," he said.
The Guard Soldiers have averaged almost one distribution site every two hours since the focus shift, standing up 22 distribution sites in about 48 hours.
So far, more than 640,000 Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), 920,000 liters of water and 25,000 tarps have been distributed to those impacted, according to Mouton.
The Guard is focused on increasing distribution sites throughout the state over the next few days as roads are cleared and troops make their way to locations around the state to assist those in need.
"The reaction time for getting food and water after this hurricane compared to years past, we have done a 180," said Daniel McLaughlin, a resident of Mandeville and former Katrina victim. "We evacuated so we were okay, but I know those who didn't went far too long without necessities. I am really impressed with the speed of assistance and it makes me proud to see that emergency response has come so far," he said.
"As we mobilize to get the distribution point set up, we get request from the parishes and prioritize as quickly as possible," Mouton said. "When you consider the scale and magnitude of the distribution mission, given an extremely tight schedule, it is pretty impressive. We are not where we want to be but will not stop pressing the effort until all the affected people of Louisiana are getting the support they need and deserve."