NAVAL AIR STATION NEW ORLEANS – More than 1,000 Marines hurried to the storm-stricken Gulf Coast over the weekend moved quickly to communities in and around New Orleans today in search of residents still in need of rescue and life-saving sustenance one week after Hurricane Katrina plunged much of the city under water.
From their initial staging base at the Stennis International Airport in Mississippi, some 50 miles east of the storm’s ground zero, elements of the active-duty 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, and the reserve units 4th Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, and 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, were ferried to three critical areas isolated by the massive flooding.
Using a hub-and-spoke approach, the Marines will push out in multiple directions from Slidell and Picayune, just north of Lake Pontchartrain, and from Michoud in New Orleans’ eastern sector. Their most urgent tasks are to locate survivors hanging on in homes and other buildings not completely awash and to funnel in much-needed food and water.
Near Michoud, where foot mobility is all but impossible, the Marines will navigate the fetid waters in amphibious vehicles called amtracs, designed to transport Marines from ships at sea to shore during amphibious operations
As Marines continued to pour into the region over the weekend, leadership of the Marine task force shifted to Maj. Gen. Douglas O’Dell, commander of the New Orleans-based 4th Marine Division, a reserve unit.
Most of the Marines now on the ground in the region and aboard naval vessels in the Gulf of Mexico are based in North Carolina with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. The task force, numbering some 1,500 Marines and still growing, includes reserve elements from the 4th Marine Division and 4th Marine Air Wing.
Also on Monday, nearly 300 Marines representing the task force’s logistics component began moving ashore near Biloxi with an array of engineering equipment -- including forklifts, trucks, humvees and water-purification devices -- all well-suited to disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. The off-load is expected to be finished by Tuesday morning.
The task force’s air component, composed of elements of the 2nd and 4th Marine air wings, continued to fly from hubs in Pensacola, Fla., and here at the naval air station in Belle Chasse. After rescuing some 500 stranded residents since Thursday, and with the airborne rescue effort all but completed, Marine helicopters prepared to expand their support of Marine ground forces.
Meanwhile, lead elements of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, who arrived in Mississippi Sunday after the unit was ordered to prepare for possible deployment, continued to assess where their forces might be most useful. The unit, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., remained on call as of late Monday.
For more information, contact Capt. David Nevers at 910-548-8008 or at neversde@24meufwd.usmc.mil.