Oregon Guard soldiers stand by in Louisiana limbo.Byline: Rebecca Nolan The Register-GuardLocal National Guard soldiers who were deployed to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. have been moved out of New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded and hope to be home
soon.
However, their plans could be derailed if incoming Hurricane Rita Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005. , which was upgraded Wednesday to a Category 5 storm, turns away from Texas and toward the already ravaged rav·age v. rav·aged, rav·ag·ing, rav·ages v.tr. 1. To bring heavy destruction on; devastate: A tornado ravaged the town. 2. Gulf Coast of Louisiana CODE, OF LOUISIANA. In 1822, Peter Derbigny, Edward Livingston, and Moreau Lislet, were selected by the legislature to revise and amend the civil code, and to add to it such laws still in force as were not included therein. and Mississippi. For now, the remaining 129 members of the Cottage Grove-based 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry Regiment, are hunkered down at an airfield in Alexandria, La., in the northern part of the state near Fort Polk Fort Polk, U.S. army post, 200,000 acres (80,937 hectares), SW La.; est. 1941 and named for the Rev. Leonidas Polk. It is a major army warm-weather training center. . They packed up all of their gear and vehicles and moved to the airfield Tuesday, Capt. Peter Aguilar of Eugene said in a phone call from the base. "We're sitting here in the heat, playing cards and waiting," Aguilar said Wednesday. About half of the infantry regiment already has returned to Oregon, some of them students who need to resume their studies, or soldiers with other pressing needs at home. The remaining soldiers are ready to board planes on short notice, Aguilar said. When Hurricane Rita, whose wind speeds reached more than 170 mph on Wednesday, touches ground, the storm could hamper the remaining soldiers' homecoming plans two ways - first, by delaying air traffic out of the Gulf Coast area, and second, by requiring the soldiers to abandon plans to leave and instead respond to the storm's aftermath. About 285 soldiers from three companies of the 162nd arrived in northeastern New Orleans two weeks ago and moved into buildings on the campus of the evacuated New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Baptist Theological Seminary[1]is a Baptist seminary located in Jagannaickpur, Church Square, Kakinada in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. It was established by the missionaries of the Canadian Baptist Mission about a century ago. . From that base, they helped evacuate people stranded in their homes by floodwater flood·wa·ter n. The water of a flood. Often used in the plural. floodwater n → aguas fpl (de la inundación) floodwater n , provided security to still-operating businesses, helped clear the roadways of debris, marked hazards such as downed lines and unsafe buildings, and notified authorities of the location of human remains. The soldiers also did what they could to clean and repair the seminary campus. To thank them, the seminary threw a barbecue for the soldiers on Monday and gave them the Louisiana and U.S. flags that had flown over the school. "That was really nice," Aguilar said. In all, nearly 2,000 Oregon National Guard troops responded to the storm-ravaged region. They gradually have been returning to their home state over the past two weeks. |
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