Ongoing Support

Here's another update on the ongoing military support for victims of Hurrican Katrina, from the DoD:


72,614 troops - 22,439 of them active duty, 45,871 National Guard and 1,895 reserves - are serving on the ground or aboard ships in the region;
19 U.S. Navy ships are in the area;
346 helicopters and 68 airplanes are supporting the operation;
259 sorties were flown during the past 24 hours, bringing the total to date to more than 12,000;
2,037 DoD medical personnel are serving in the area;
7 installations are serving as transportation staging areas for ice, water, food and medical supplies;
16.7 million meals, ready to eat have been delivered, with 1 million of them diverted to Virginia and Georgia to support Hurricane Ophelia response, if required;
789 beds are available in field hospitals at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, the 14th Combat Support Hospital, and aboard USS Bataan, USS Iwo Jima and USS Shreveport;
119 nations and 12 international organizations have offered assistance, with Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., serving as the central collection point for supplies donated by foreign countries;
19,056 cubic square feet of water is being pumped out of Louisiana's New Orleans and Plaquemines parishes by the Army Corps of Engineers as part of Task Force Unwater;
12 interim repairs have been completed on New Orleans' levee system, with Army Corps of Engineers identifying a total of 27 levee breaches, 19 of them attributable to Hurricane Katrina; and
390,487 cubic yards of debris, of the estimated 77.5 million cubic yards that require moving, have been removed by the Army Corps of Engineers.