The US military yesterday added naval ships, including two helicopter assault vessels and a hospital ship, and elite troops to the relief effort in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The moves came as the army corps of engineers drew up plans to help the national guard drop 1,360kg (3,000lb) sandbags into a breach in a protective levee which caused the flooding of most of the tourist mecca of New Orleans after Katrina ripped ashore.
The Pentagon said that more than 8,200 part-time national guard troops had been mobilised by the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida for duties ranging from police work to providing water and electricity generators.
Other states were planning to send additional troops and equipment, according to Brad Swezey, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon.
The military's northern command said yesterday that the naval hospital ship Comfort was preparing to leave Baltimore, Maryland, and the helicopter carrier USS Bataan and another warship were already conducting rescue missions along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.
The USS Iwo Jima, another helicopter assault ship, was also preparing to sail from Norfolk, Virginia, with three other vessels. These would arrive off the Gulf Coast in five days, the navy said.
In New Orleans, the corps of engineers said that it was planning to start dropping the giant sandbags into an opening along the 17th street canal floodwall from twin-rotor helicopters to try to fill a large breach caused by Katrina.