Utah soldiers in New Orleans for relief effort

Soldiers in full battle armor patrol through the streets in Humvees.

Debris litters the abandoned streets.

But this is not a war zone, it's New Orleans.

Some 375 Utah National Guard soldiers recently arrived in the storm-ravaged city to support cleanup and relief efforts for this area torn apart by Hurricane Katrina. They made their way clearing debris through small towns in the Gulf Coast area before arriving in New Orleans, said 2nd Lt. Wayne Lee.

"We were pulling debris by day and busting looters at night," said Staff Sgt. Tom Porritt, who returned from the Gulf Coast area with dozens of other soldiers a week ago. "Made for a long day."

Porritt, a soldier in the 1457th Engineering Battalion, said it was surreal witnessing the remnants of towns torn apart by Hurricane Katrina. The Utah National Guard soldiers had been based in southwest Louisiana near Lafayette before wending their way to New Orleans within the past few days.

Now that they've arrived in New Orleans, the Utah citizen soldiers will devote their entire attention to keeping the peace in this relative ghost town, said Maj. Hank McIntire, Utah National Guard spokesman.

"The thing that is really keeping people away is that we're really out in force," Lee said in a telephone interview from New Orleans. "But a lot of drug dealers are starting to slowly make their way back, so some of our guys are on night patrol."

Approximately 50 soldiers returned home last weekend after three weeks in southwestern Louisiana, where they helped in a variety of missions, including construction, debris cleanup, security patrols, traffic and crowd control, medical efforts, community relations and distribution of food, ice and water.

All Utah soldiers are expected to return to the state by the end of this month, McIntire said.

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