Louisiana National Guard works around clock to combat flooding
by Staff Sgt. Denis Ricou, Louisiana National Guard Public Affairs Office
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Louisiana National Guard continues to assist local, parish and state emergency officials in combating the flood waters to protect communities in Northwest Louisiana, June 6.
Louisiana Guardsmen, as directed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, have been hauling assets, assisting construction efforts, and positioning teams to potentially affected areas.
Currently, LANG Engineer teams are constructing 800 linear feet of HESCO barriers, consisting of two rows on the bottom and one row on the top totaling 2,400 linear feet, to fortify a concrete wall located at Clyde Fant Pkwy. and Jimmy Davis Hwy. in Shreveport.
Prior to this mission, Guardsmen completed construction on a 610 linear foot temporary berm while assisting Caddo Parish officials in 24-hour construction efforts to improve protection measures of the Stoner Lift Station.
The LANG have provided personnel and equipment to Camp Minden to support transportation of an approximate 60,000 filled sandbags to Bossier Parish. Guardsmen will deliver these filled sand bags to locations designated by Bossier Parish officials.
To date, the LANG has repositioned more than 305,000 sandbags from state warehouses to six parishes in order to support parish flood fighting preparations.
Guardsmen also hauled 200,000 bottles of water to Northwest Louisiana to back up the drinking water supply.
The LANG has staged four boat teams, four Humvees and four high-water vehicles at the Shreveport armory for potential search and rescue (SAR) operations. They also have approximately 20 high-water vehicles and 13 boats positioned in the vicinity of Caddo and Bossier Parishes that can quickly respond for integrated search and rescue missions.
The Guard has additional vehicles and boats located at Camp Beauregard and south Louisiana that could be repositioned for catastrophic events.
Louisiana’s Guardsmen remain ready and equipped to stand up at any moment to protect lives and property, maintain communications, and ensure the continuity of operations and government.