U.S. National Guard
Governor Kathleen Blanco (D) requested, via a letter to the U.S. National Guard Bureau on August 30, additional National Guard troops from other states to supplement the Louisiana National Guard, but approval did not occur until September 1. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had offered assistance to Blanco two days before the storm hit, but could not send his troops until approval came from the National Guard Bureau. Blanco later acknowledged that she should have called for more troops sooner, and that she should have activated a compact with other states that would have allowed her to bypass the requirement to route the request through the National Guard Bureau.
Some 40% of Louisiana's National Guard was deployed to Iraq at the time, and critics claim that use of the National Guard to boost troop numbers in Iraq left them unready to handle disasters at home.
Read more about this topic: Criticism Of Government Response To Hurricane Katrina
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