SANDSTON, Va. - More than 125 Virginia National Guard personnel were staged and ready for possible winter storm response operations at locations across the commonwealth Tuesday morning.
After Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency Monday afternoon, Guard personnel begin moving into place and were staged and ready late Monday evening in order to support Virginia State Police, Virginia Department of Transportation or other state and local emergency response organizations.
The majority of the personnel are Soldiers from various units of the 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, and there are Soldiers, Airmen and members of the Virginia Defense Force located at the Virginia National Guard’s Joint Operations Center in Sandston and Logistics Operations Center at Fort Pickett. Soldiers are staged at readiness centers along the I-81 corridor from Winchester to Christiansburg as well as in Leesburg, Fredericksburg, Bowling Green, Danville, South Boston and Farmville.
The Guard is authorized to bring up to 300 personnel on state active duty and could alert more personnel today if needed.
A total of about 200 Soldiers and Airmen were active during snowstorms in Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia over the weekend.
Potential missions for the Virginia Guard and Virginia Defense Force included assisting stranded motorists, transportation of healthcare professionals and the seriously ill to medical treatment facilities, transportation of personnel or equipment to potential heating or sheltering locations and downed tree removal, said Col. James Zollar, director of joint operations for the Virginia Guard.
"Getting our personnel staged and ready at key locations before the severe weather hits is critical to our ability to rapidly respond when needed," he said.
The Virginia National Guard receives its missions through the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to assist the Virginia State Police, the Virginia Department of Transportation and other state and local emergency response organizations and is not able to respond to direct support requests from the public, Zollar said.
Virginia Guard personnel last served on state active duty in February 2014. Operating from readiness centers along the I-81, I-95, Route 29 and Route 460 corridors, nearly 300 Soldiers, Airmen and members of the Virginia Defense Force supported winter storm response efforts beginning Feb. 12. Soldiers working in coordination with the Virginia State Police conducted more than 40 missions assisting and transporting local fire, police and emergency medical services personnel and nearly 30 missions assisting stranded motorists and citizens.
Meanwhile, in hard-hit Massachusetts, about 500 personnel were on duty from the Massachusetts National Guard, joined by nearly 40 from Vermont and about 50 from Maine. Statistics were staggering, according to figures from the National Guard Bureau: 2,145 truckloads of snow removed, more than 78,000 yards of snow cleared and more than 4,900 fire hydrants cleared. Guard units cleared more than 152 miles of road of record-breaking snowfall.
Contributing: Steve Marshall of the National Guard Bureau