NEW ORLEANS – In the midst of an emergency, Louisiana National Guard members are easily noticeable rescuing people and protecting property. Behind the scenes, however, is the vital mission of supplying basic necessities to victims of natural disasters.
The Louisiana National Guard's Unified Logistics Element (ULE) works non-stop to ensure that food, water, tarps, sandbags and other commodities are distributed to residents during emergencies.
Those efforts now are directed at those affected by historic flooding across the state.
To date, the LANG has issued more than 218,740 bottles of water, 13,240 MREs, and 1,814,000 sandbags to affected parishes.
To ensure that these commodities are readily available during state emergencies, the LANG ULE has an office set up in Baton Rouge that is staffed 24/7 by Soldiers and Airmen, running alongside the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and civilian contractors.
There, Guard members use the Point of Distribution Inventory System (PODIS), a program designed and developed by the LANG that tracks inventory of warehouses, distribution centers and even commodities in transport in real time.
The PODIS system is a vital part of conducting distribution operations after severe weather events, according to Louisiana Air National Guard Col. Joseph "Pat" Griffin, the officer in charge (OIC) of the ULE.
"PODIS automatically calculates the burn rates of our commodities," said Griffin, "and that helps ensure that our distribution centers will not run out of food and water."
The ULE is not only responsible for the distribution of commodities after a natural disaster. After the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in 2010, one of the main missions of the element was to deliver the material used to contain the oil. "We can modify to fit into any logistics operation," Griffin said.
This will be the LANG's fourth year using the PODIS system, and a new system launched this year enables PODIS to be used from any computer with Internet capability.
"The LANG is a very flexible force, able to adjust to the needs of any mission," said Maj. Joe Carey, OIC of the ULE's auditing cell. "In a disaster response such as this, we are able to work together with several different agencies spanning every asset of the Guard."
The auditing cell handles the actual ordering of supplies such as food, water and tarps from distributors and makes sure that the Guard's warehouses are stocked. "PODIS enables warehouse managers to immediately update commodity inventory, which is an invaluable asset to us," Carey said.
Commodity distribution takes several steps to get an item to a person in need. First, the
affected parish must request help from the state. After the request is approved, the state moves the request to the Emergency Operations Center, headquartered in Baton Rouge, which then relays requests to the ULE.
The ULE then assigns the 165th Combat Service Support Group, headquartered in Bossier City, with delivering and distributing commodities to residents and local officials. Approximately 200 Guard members from the 165th are working to transport and distribute goods.
"Since the time we called our Soldiers up for missions on March 11, they came in with no hesitation, have stood up and done a great job," said Sgt. 1st Class Natalie Wall, readiness non-commissioned officer of the 1086th Transportation Company. "Our mission started with Grant Parish and has moved to seven parishes as the need continued."