Oklahoma National Guard in New Orleans

Sgt. George Lowry, National Guard Recruiter in Miami, spoke to members of Grove Rotary at Wednesday's regular meeting, telling of his experiences in the Gulf Coast area following Hurricane Katrina.
Some 55 Guardsmen from Vinita and Miami are still in New Orleans and should return home in a couple of weeks, he said, part of an Oklahoma contingent numbering more than 2300.
With only one day's notice to families, they left in a convoy on Friday following Sunday's event and are staying in a basement apartment in the Garden District in an area that was not flooded.
They take care of security, go through houses searching for looting or bodies, block by block, and wear protective masks at all times.
"This is a hazmat site," Lowry related. He added that there are 14,000 troops from across the US in the New Orleans area now. "Only two days ago did our troops get cots to sleep on, they had been sleeping on the floor." They get hot food and water for showers, but there is still no electricity or coolers to put their ice in, so it just melts on the floor.
He said it is the Governor's responsibility to call out the National Guard from each state, while the President of the United States calls out the regular military personnel.
Oklahoma has 6,800 people in the National Guard, he said.
Jamie Zellow, Grove Rotarian and with PSO in Grove, just returned from 14 days in the Gulf Coast area of Alabama and Mississippi, where he described the damage as 80% complete.
"Everything is covered in 3-6 inches of mud that smells terrible, houses are destroyed in a path 125 miles across by 100 miles inland from the coast," he said. "Boats are in trees," he added.
"We will have crews down there and it may be November before all the power is back on. This is like nothing I have ever seen before," he said.
(Photo, Sgt. George Lowry and Rotary President Charlie Wallace)