Adjutant General Cross: Mississippi Guard may have to borrow soldiers, rent equipment to provide hurricane assistance

Mississippi Army National Guard helicopters, located at the Mississippi National Guard Combat Readiness Training Center, Gulfport, ferrying supplies around the state following Hurrican Katrina.

GULFPORT, Miss. — The Mississippi National Guard may have to borrow soldiers and rent equipment to provide assistance if another hurricane hits the Gulf Coast, but Maj. Gen. Harold A. Cross said help will be provided.

The next hurricane season begins June 1.

Cross, the adjutant general of Mississippi, said Friday that Guardsmen will be strategically placed in coastal areas to provide, among other things, search and rescue missions, assistance to local law enforcement, clearing debris and distributing supplies.

Cross said the Mississippi Guard will respond more quickly and with twice as many troops as it did after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

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