"I urge the citizens to listen carefully to the instructions provided by state and local authorities, and follow them," Bush said during a speech in Washington. "We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we've got to be ready for the worst."
Hundreds of truckloads of water, ice, and ready-made meals have already been dispatched to locations in Rita’s path, with medical assistance and search and rescue teams also on call.
Over 300,000 National Guard troops nationwide have also been called to action, including marines and elements of the 82nd Airborne Division.
R. David Paulison, the acting director of FEMA has also asked the Defence Department for six-heavy lift helicopters, a 2,500 bed hospital system, a food kitchen to serve at least 500,000 meals and equipment to bridge impassable, flooded roads.
"The most important thing that we're doing is work with the Department of Defense to use their assets up front before the storm instead of waiting until after the storm lands," Paulison told the Washington Post.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was confident about the government’s preparations for Rita.
“I think we’re going to be ready when it does hit land,” said Chertoff, who added that Homeland Security has been “reloading” their resources since Katrina.
Numerous volunteer organisations are also gearing up for Rita’s impact.
Jim Burton, director of volunteer mobilisation at the North American Mission Board, the parent organisation for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, says that preparing for Rita is going to be a stretch.
“We are already engaged in the largest natural disaster in recent U.S. history,” Burton told the Baptist Press. “To now gear up for another hurricane when there is so much more work to do in the Gulf....that’s going to be tough, [but] we have the capacity to respond to both.”
The Salvation Army released a statement on Monday saying that they are confident of their abilities to effectively respond to, “any need Rita might impose on the Texas coast,” and have placed personnel on standby for immediate deployment.
“With much of our equipment and personnel still serving in the areas affected by Katrina we are having to look carefully at our available resources,” said Captain John Birks, Texas Divisional Secretary for Disaster. “We have approximately 18 mobile feeding units we will stage in a location ready to respond. We won’t know that location though until later this week as we watch the projections for landfall.”
The Salvation Army and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, in addition to being Christian organisations, are also two of the three largest disaster relief operations in the country.
Justin Camacho
Christian Today Correspondent
