Mr. Nelson (FL): Mr. President, I want to share another idea, and this has nothing to do with these weighty matters, but it certainly has to do with some weighty matters about whether the National Guard of this country has the proper equipment.
There was a General Accounting Office report from last summer that showed that the National Guard is woefully inadequate in its equipment. It pointed out in that GAO study that my State of Florida had only 53 percent of the equipment that it ought to have. It said the State of New Mexico National Guard had only 33 percent.
What is happening is what you would expect: As the National Guard units in America are activated to go over to Iraq and Afghanistan, they take their equipment with them, and so often it is worn out or it has to stay for others to use, and they come back and they do not have the equipment; or it is like the 11 helicopters of the National Guard in Florida--a year from now, they are planning to take those helicopters from the Florida Guard and send them over to the Middle East. Can you imagine if that occurs and the Florida National Guard is faced with a major hurricane and they do not have any helicopters? Hurricanes are indiscriminate in the way they come in and tear up everything over a large swath of property, so that in a big one you cannot traverse the roads because everything is suddenly on top of them. So often you have to have helicopters to get supplies and personnel in to people who are hurting.
That is one example. That is a year from now if they take the helicopters from the Florida National Guard because they need them over in the Middle East. But let me tell you the condition of it today. The Florida National Guard--and I am quoting their own figures--is short 500 humvees. They are short 600 trucks, and this is either a 5-ton truck or a deuce and a half, 2½-ton truck--600 short. They are short 500 long-haul trailers, they are short 20 wreckers, and they are short 4,400 night-vision goggles. What do all of those shortages have to do with anything? It has to do--if the big one comes and the big one is a category 4 or 5 hurricane hitting a densely urbanized part of Florida direct from the water, the Florida Guard is going to need every bit of equipment it can get to respond to that emergency.
Let me give you another example. The report 6 months ago was that Fidel Castro was going to be dead within 6 months. Looks like that may have changed, at least by the more recent reports. But what happens and what will be the political condition in Cuba when he does pass away? Is the then caretaker government going to be in sufficient control, or is chaos going to erupt and suddenly a mass outmigration of thousands and thousands of people trying to get to the United States? That is also when you need the National Guard.
Now, I have talked with the Coast Guard and the Navy, and they have a plan whereby they have an entire sentry line of ships that they line up, which I have questions on and we will talking about on another occasion, about that plan, because they have only modeled it if 10,000 were to flee. What happens if 100,000 flee? They are not prepared for that, and everybody in authority with that plan will tell you they are not prepared for it. But whatever it is, if it occurs, which we hope and pray that it will not, the National Guard is going to be a major component of trying to restore order and keep order. Their equipment has been depleted.
Now, if we end up having the typical category 1, 2, and 3 hurricanes, which are severe hurricanes, the Florida National Guard tells me they have adequate equipment, they certainly have the personnel, and they are the best trained in the country, they know how to handle hurricanes, and they are the best of the best. But if they do not have the equipment--they tell me they do for up to a category 3--but if the big one hits, then they are going to have to rely on getting equipment from other National Guards around the country. So what is the lag time on that? And when they reach out to another Guard--for example, the Pennsylvania National Guard with which they have a compact to share equipment--is the Pennsylvania Guard going to have sufficient equipment that they can lend to Florida in an emergency?
These are serious questions which need to be answered before the hurricane season and before any kind of potential outmigration from the island of Cuba so that we have preparations, they are adequately equipped to go along with the experts and expertise of the trained personnel and all of the emergency responders who would respond to that kind of an event.
I am going to continue to sound the alarm until we get some response. I do not believe the Florida Guard has the equipment for a category 5 hurricane coming right up Tampa Bay or hitting directly from the east coast from the Atlantic, in a high urbanized area such as the Dade- Broward line. So I am going to continue to ask this question, as uncomfortable as it will make some people, until somebody will respond.
I think one potential solution is that there be an agreement which would be cut with the Active-Duty--correct that--with the Army Reserves located in Florida that have equipment that there will be an immediate lending of that equipment and/or personnel to the Florida National Guard in the case of a major, catastrophic hurricane hit.
When a hurricane hits, it is a matter of life and death. As time goes on, as expert as our emergency responders are--and they are expert because they have been through a lot and they are quite experienced and well trained--the ability over time to get those supplies in, even supplies that have been prepositioned closer to where the hurricane is going to hit, the ability to get that transported in is critical in those first days because there is no power.
You wonder, night-vision goggles--what does that have to do with it, that the Florida Guard is 4,400 pairs of night-vision goggles short? It is because, in the aftermath of a hurricane, there is no electricity. Everything is dark at night. As troops are moving through all of that debris, they have to be able to see. That is what those night-vision goggles are for.
So this Senator will continue to sound the alarm. We will get the answers. And the good Lord willing, despite the warnings from La Nina in the Pacific that this is going to be a terribly active hurricane season in the Atlantic, the good Lord willing, we will not have that active hit on the mainland of the United States, but we better be prepared.
Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The Acting President pro tempore: The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. Nelson (FL): I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The Acting President pro tempore: Without objection, it is so ordered.
