Kansas tornado disaster highlights lack of National Guard readiness due to Iraq
 Kansas' Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius said Monday that the effort to recover from the damage caused by tornadoes that hit six Kansas counties over the weekend is being hampered by the war in Iraq.
According to Sebelius there is a shortage of trucks, helicopters and other equipment necessary for the disaster clean up effort due to the Iraq war.
"There is no doubt at all that this will slow down and hamper the recovery," she told Reuters.
In a television interview with CNN on Sunday, Sebelius outlined the problem in more detail.
"Well, states all over the country are not only missing personnel, National Guard troops are — about 40 percent of the troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan — but we’re missing the equipment. When the troops get deployed, the equipment goes with them," she told CNN.
"So, here in Kansas, about 50 percent of our trucks are gone. We need trucks. We’re missing Humvees, we’re missing all kinds of equipment that can help us respond to this kind of emergency."
She said that because the National Guard doesn't have the equipment it needs, the disaster relief efforts are proceeding at a much slower pace than they otherwise could.
Sebelius' concerns highlight a wider issue of National Guard readiness, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who said in email today that the "war in Iraq has had a serious impact on the National Guard and its ability to protect and assist Americans in times of disaster here at home."
"The warnings about National Guard readiness have been clear," wrote Pelosi. "States are not as ready as they should be to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies."
The war spending bill that President Bush vetoed on May 1st included $2 billion for a Strategic Reserve Readiness Fund, including $1 billion Army National Guard equipment shortfalls, according to Pelosi.
A January 2007 Government Accounting Office report on America's reserve forces highlighted National Guard equipment shortfalls, saying, "The high use of the National Guard for federal overseas missions has reduced equipment available for its state-led domestic missions, at the same time it faces an expanded array of threats at home."
A spokesman for the Louisiana National Guard told the Washington Post in March that they were concerned about a lack of vehicles that would be needed to respond to a hurricane like Katrina.
"We would have enough for a small-scale issue," Lt. Col. Pete Schneider told the Post, "maybe a Category 1 tropical storm we could handle -- an event that doesn't involve massive flooding or massive search and rescue."
In the same Washington Post piece, Col. Robert Simpson, Director of the Joint Staff for the Virginia National Guard, described a shortage of vehicles, radios, heavy machinery and other necessary equipment.
In the event of "a very large... chemical, biological or nuclear incident in the national capital region, I would need every truck I was authorized, and we don't have that," he said.
Today, Governor Sebelius of Kansas expressed grave concern over the lack of National Guard readiness to respond to domestic disasters. "We're getting pounded in Kansas. We have the need for National Guard in two different parts of our state now. This is really going to be a problem," she said.
"More than 20 percent of its Humvees and 15 of 19 helicopters were sent to Iraq, said officials with the Kansas National Guard," reported Reuters.
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