More members of the Hawaii National Guard have been activated to respond to the wildfires on Maui, the Pentagon said, and Indo-Pacific Command remains poised to respond should a request for more aid come in.
The Hawaii National Guard has now activated a total of approximately 250 guard members, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a briefing Monday.
The National Guard are working with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and helping local law enforcement.
CNN reported last week that two Army National Guard heavy-lift Chinook helicopters are helping with wildlife response operations and the search and recovery teams. To date, crews have dropped more than 189,000 gallons of water to support firefighting efforts.
The US Army Corps of Engineers has also sent debris removal experts and temporary power experts to Maui, Ryder said.
The Army Reserve is also helping the Red Cross by providing additional space at a center in Maui.
Despite a substantial military presence in Hawaii, including the headquarters of Indo-Pacific Command, there has not yet been a request for a larger active-duty response, Ryder said.
“FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the Hawaiian Emergency Management Agency, as they put together their response in terms of what’s needed, INDO-PACOM is on a hair trigger to be able to support as necessary, and so we’re going to do that,” Ryder said at the briefing.
Ryder said the Defense Department was coordinating with FEMA and other emergency response agencies to avoid a situation in which military assets flowed in unnecessarily and created logistics problems in a disaster situation.
“Obviously FEMA has a lot of experience in these types of situations,” Ryder said. “We’re going to work closely to make sure we’re getting folks what they need.”