National Guard in Panama City Beach now

So they are downplaying the oil ordeal (in their newspapers)along the beaches of Panama City etc because they want tourists to come and spend money (which I understand sort of) ..and they have an ad to hire 100 workers (local) and BP has several people working as well ..So why the National Guard ? (There is 30 so far ..but they are gonna bring in 200 according to the article ) ...........
So where is Fema ..did BP take over the job of Fema ?

www.wjhg.com...

FEMA's not there? Maybe it's not quite at their level of disaster yet. Sounds like the Guard is there with the EPA. Wonder if this is happening in other Gulf towns. PC is quite a bit east of Ft Walton, which is that last place I heard of where the oil is coming in.

reply to post by Simplynoone


Interesting. "Beach Reconaissance" That is what the article calls it. They received "ATV training."

Why would they need 200 to just patrol and map the beach? I can see the 30, especially if they have particular mapping skills, but not 200? Hell, they don't have 200 on the Arizona Border, why would they have 200 just in Bay County, FL???

according to the article
they are just there to observe and report
to higher ups using ATV's.

Can't local Police perform this same function??
Can't Lifeguards perform this same function??

Its about time!

I grew up in Ohio where we saw them almost every bad winter... they were a lot of help

I expected to see National Guard showing up earlier... but... I guess better late than never...

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by Simplynoone

 

Interesting. "Beach Reconaissance" That is what the article calls it. They received "ATV training."

Why would they need 200 to just patrol and map the beach? I can see the 30, especially if they have particular mapping skills, but not 200? Hell, they don't have 200 on the Arizona Border, why would they have 200 just in Bay County, FL???

Public relations.

And they probably had volunteers that wanted to help clean up. Very highly doubt these national guard troops will carry weapons, if that's what people here are thinking.

Do you think the National Guard have been warned about breathing problems etc ? Because of the oil and Chemicals ....

Seriously I dont understand why they are needed there yet ....
Unless they are concerned with hurricaines coming ..or civil unrest for some reason ..


Right now they said very little oil is washing up on their beaches and they dont expect much in the next 72 hours at least ..
So why now ? ....

The guard are there to drag the dead turtles, dolphins and fish away from the beaches during the night. What other real purpose could they serve?

I am going to Panama City tomorrow for 4 days. I going to check out and see what I can see. I have grown up down there and I want to see first hand for myself what it looks like and what they are actually doing down there. I will report what I actually see as I am on my visit. I will try to get some information from some of the locals etc, and will report back to everyone!

This story on FoxNews mentions this...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has authorized up to 17,500 National Guard troops to fight the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but only a fraction of that number has been deployed so far -- raising questions about where the troops are and why they have such a small presence.

A Defense official told Fox News that governors are afraid that activating more troops would be politically harmful, charging taxpayers a high cost for duties that won't keep troops busy.

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Here you go:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Simplynoone
So they are downplaying the oil ordeal (in their newspapers)along the beaches of Panama City etc because they want tourists to come and spend money (which I understand sort of) ..and they have an ad to hire 100 workers (local) and BP has several people working as well ..So why the National Guard ? (There is 30 so far ..but they are gonna bring in 200 according to the article ) ...........
So where is Fema ..did BP take over the job of Fema ?

www.wjhg.com...

Why the National Guard? Because that's what we have them for.

And FEMA has no jurisdiction in this instance, i'm pretty sure.

I PRAY that we can trust our National Guard ...after Katrina though its pretty iffy ...I kept up with every single news I could get my hands on during Katrina and I found the behaviour of just about everyone INVOLVED to be downright INHUMANE >>(except a few who tried their best to help and was turned away by those who are supposed to protect and serve).....how on earth the government and fema and whoever else was in charge could sit by and watch all those people for DAYS AND DAYS suffering ...IS BEYOND ME >....I lost all hope for anyone in high positions to be CONCERNED WITH THE WELL BEING OF THE PEOPLE during that whole ordeal .........MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON THEM ... >>..and may GOD HELP THE PEOPLE IN THE GULF (my sister and brother too) ................

So, one of my employees in Tallahassee got a call from his National Guard or Reserve commander yesterday at 9, and he had to leave by 9:30, and I am supposed to have his orders sometime today!

That seems like a very quick deployment for a guy that is just a weekend warrior? He just got off 1 week of drills and there was no mention of deployment at that time, so this is a new development!

I know this might sound a little paranoid, but maybe they are there to keep individuals with cameras away from certain areas. I think one poster pointed out it's possible they could be removing animals before they are caught on video and posted everywhere. I noticed the baby dolphin story was picked up on MSM but most of the reports I heard, left out the fact that it did not make it. Who knows?

Or could this be a lot worse than we are led to believe and the goverment does not want the public to panic?
If you haven't already seen it, check out the video of P~cola Beach where the ocean water appears to be boiling/bubbling. I've lived here most of my life and I can't recall ever seeing anything like this happening.

www.youtube.com...

I just spoke with a family friend who told me he 'thinks' the national guard is being called in because massive amounts of people that are trying to help clean the beach.
While it is a lovely gesture to want to help keep the beaches clean, they are putting themselves in harms way.
BTW he is a retired admiral. My dad believes there is more to it than that.

I think BP should start training volunteers, so that more people that wanted to get involved could. I don't this will happen anytime soon because BP has a STRICT rule against any of the crews that they have hired bringing any type of camera or even a cell phone with them to work. The clean up crews do not even drive themselves to the beach, they are bussed in. They are also strictly forbidden to talk to the press, they would be immediately terminated. BP would not have that type of control if they allowed volunteers to help.