Gov. Martin O?Malley said the state should turn to volunteer sources to make up for the shortage of manpower and equipment in responding to natural disasters due to the mobilization of National Guard troops for service in Iraq.
“Hopefully there will be a speedy end to the Iraq,” O?Malley said Tuesday. But until then, “we need to back fill against this equipment loss.”
Based on a report from the National Guard, O?Malley said the state will only have a third of the heavy equipment and emergency generators it relies on to respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters, and half of the communications gear. He said the military transports used to send volunteers from Maryland to respond to Hurricane Katrina were all moved out of state.
In a memo to O?Malley, the Guard estimated “that if Maryland were struck by a Category II hurricane, approximately 335 Humvees would be required to respond adequately to provide essential services in supportof state and local first responders.” The Guard would be short 76 Humvees, the National Guard memo said.
The memo was prepared at U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski?s request. At an appropriations subcommittee hearing on the U.S. defense budget today, Mikulski will question Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the National Guard shortages across the country, according to the senator?s aide. C-Span will broadcast the hearing.
“The National Guard throughout the United States has really been weakened,” O?Malley said.
He suggested that heavy-equipment operators, operating engineers and civilian medical and nursing personnel need to be recruited as back up for the Guard members who have been shipped overseas.
In most jurisdictions throughout Maryland, Community Emergency Response Teams, a program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have been trained as auxiliary to police, fire and emergency medical staff. However, officials said a large natural or man-made disaster could overwhelm them.
