National Guard arrives in N.O.

• By ALLEN M. JOHNSON JR. AND JOHN A. COLVIN
• Advocate staff writers
• Published: Aug 30, 2008 - Page: 6A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — On the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, 200 military vehicles carrying 1,500 Louisiana National Guard troops rumbled into a city preparing to flee a storm named Gustav.

With crisp hand signals, State Police troopers directed the convoy into a parking lot across the street from the New Orleans Morial Convention Center.

Three years ago on Aug. 29, Katrina flooded most of the city. The giant hall became a shelter for thousands of mostly poor, black and elderly evacuees — and the scene of shocking squalor, deprivation and death.

On Friday, the show of force — and support — made clear that Katrina’s history would not be so easily repeated for Gustav.

“Right now our orders, are to be prepared to assist the city in civilian evacuation should that need arise,” said Col. Johnny Ball, commander of the 256th Infantry Brigade, based in Lafayette. “We’re also prepared to assist the New Orleans Police Department in police patrols throughout the city.”

In addition, the Guard will help State Police and the NOPD execute the state’s complex contraflow evacuation plan for the city.

Mayor Ray Nagin declared a state of emergency less than five hours after the troops arrived.

The city’s mass “city-assisted” evacuation of some 30,000 residents by bus will begin at 8 a.m. today, Nagin said.

A mandatory evacuation order will follow sometime Sunday and the Guard will help NOPD enforce a strict curfew, Col. Jerry Sneed, the city’s emergency preparedness director, said Friday.

Ball said the Guard would set up headquarters at the Convention Center then deploy units throughout the city’s eight police districts. The soldiers will sleep where they are based, he said.

Nagin said the storm is expected to make landfall about 4 a.m. Monday, with tropical storm-force winds hitting the city about noon. The Guard troops will be sheltered at the Convention Center, and then deployed for search and rescue missions after the storm passes.

Guardsmen from the 256th — drawn from throughout the state — assembled at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center at Gonzales on Friday morning. At least 70 percent of the brigade saw action during the war in Iraq — but missed Katrina, Ball said. The unit was returning to Louisiana from Baghdad when the storm hit.

Specialist Daniel Sonnier, of Chalmette, stretched out in the back of a transport truck waiting to leave. He said he felt “horrible.”