[StBernard] Louisiana National Guard Engineering Group Leaves St. Bernard

[Westley Annis]

Louisiana National Guard Engineering Group Leaves St. Bernard

January 31 , 2006

By: Steve Cannizaro


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Louisiana National Guard Engineering Group leaves St. Bernard after spending
several months helping in parish's storm recovery


St. Bernard Parish government said goodbye in a ceremony Tuesday to the
225th Engineering Group of the Louisiana National Guard, the soldiers
responsible for clearing streets of sludge and debris immediately after
Hurricane Katrina and who then did repairs to the parish levee system until
the Corps of Engineers took over with commercial contractors.

"Without them we couldn't have done anything,'' said Larry Ingargiola, head
of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for parish government. "They
were doing anything we asked of them, search and rescue and then using their
heavy equipment to clear roads and repair levees.''

Parish Council Chairman Lynn Dean, Vice Chairman Joseph DiFatta Jr. and
Council members Mark Madary and Judy Hoffmesiter and Clerk of Council Polly
Boudreaux thanked the Group for their work.

Col. Douglas Mouton, who leads the 225th Engineering Group, thanked parish
government for its cooperation and presented a collage depicting his group
in action in Afghanistan in the War on Terror. Referring to the storm
recovery, Mouton, "For all of us it was a new chapter in our lives.''

Mouton said his group had been in St. Bernard since immediately after the
storm, taking part in rescue efforts and cleared the streets of sludge and
debris to make roads passable.

Then the engineering work began, Mouton said, the 205th, 527th and 528th
battalions of the group made repairs to parish levees, working with the Lake
Borgne Basin Levee District, and removed debris from levees and built access
bridges and roads.

"We kept the work moving until the Corps of Engineers could mobilize
commercial contractors'' to work on levees, Mouton said. "We feel we made a
good hand-off'' to the Corps. About 500 soldiers were involved in debris
removal in the parish and up to 200 worked on levee repairs, he said.

Mouton also said many of his soldiers will now return to civilian life,
where they will face many of the challenges the residents of St. Bernard
Parish are going through because they also had damage to their homes from
Hurricane Katrina.