If a Katrina-sized hurricane churned through Hawai'i, military resources would be vital to any recovery effort, from the citizen soldiers in the Hawai'i National Guard to the more than 45,000 active duty personnel stationed here.

The list of resources touches on everything the military does: Soldiers to evacuate citizens. Helicopters to rescue the injured. Transport planes to move supplies. Self-sufficient teams of medical personnel that can travel to areas isolated by damaged roads.

Ed Teixeira, the state's vice director of Civil Defense, called the military help available "a resource we treasure."

"The military is a bastion of defense and should something happen, they are a critical and crucial response for us," he said.

The Hawai'i National Guard — with its 5,500 men and women and an ability to move them all over the state — is the state's first choice to handle civil defense needs. But a long-standing written agreement between the state and all branches of the military allows for mutual assistance on localized emergencies — this summer's Nanakuli brushfires were a good example — and major disasters, such as a hurricane or a tsunami.

The agreement has been in place since 1960 and is reviewed and signed by senior military officials every three years. Last signed in December 2003, it allows for military assistance in situations where the president has not declared a major disaster or emergency in Hawai'i, Teixeira said.

FIRST LINE OF RESPONSE

If authorities had to evacuate communities in the path of a hurricane, especially isolated ones like Kalaupapa, and the Hawai'i National Guard couldn't help, the state would turn to the military for assistance, Teixeira said.

A presidential declaration would clear the way for added federal involvement via the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but the same military assets would be available, Teixeira said.

"No state is hurricane proof," Teixeira said. "And no state is fully prepared to take on a hurricane. That is why we have the federal government."

But Teixeira has had to re-think his staffing scenarios in the last two years because of deployments of Hawai'i-based soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I am living on the edge," he said. "It made me reflect and plan, actually in the last year, that in the absence of the Guard and 11,000 active duty troops deployed, where would we go to? But there was still some military strength in the Marine Corps and the Air Guard we could employ until we put the pieces back together."

It will likely be three to four days after a hurricane clears Hawai'i before outside supplies, equipment and personnel arrive. Military units here will have to do the heavy lifting until help arrives.

"If a major hurricane were to hit O'ahu, we understand that the ports would be damaged and the air fields would be damaged," said Maj. Charles Anthony, spokesman for the Hawai'i National Guard. "So we have to have enough supplies to take care of ourselves for three to four days. Can we do that? Yes."

Col. John Kelly, chief of staff for U.S. Army, Pacific, said military authorities here have almost everything needed to respond to a natural disaster.

"We have the forces and can get there quickly," Kelly said. "We know what kind of stocks we have. We know there are 150,000 MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) right here. We have water. And all those things can move very quickly by military air both by National Guard and active forces, to any place around the islands."

With a single phone call to Schofield Barracks, Kelly said he can marshal 2,500 soldiers and a fleet of trucks and move them across the island in as little as three hours.

"It is a powerful force when you can do that with one phone call," said Kelly, who has worked on several hurricane relief efforts while stationed on the East Coast.

ALWAYS ON ALERT

Military medical help would be available from Tripler Army Medical Center, which has six "smart teams" equipped with enough food, water and medical supplies to function on their own for 72 hours, said Tom Howko, emergency management coordinator for the Pacific Regional Medical Command.

"They are select soldiers who have specific kinds of skills in disaster response," Howko said.

And they're accustomed to working under austere conditions.

"Soldiers go into this kind of environment all the time," he said.

One of the teams' most powerful tools is the ability to communicate with doctors outside the disaster area. Team members can even perform surgery using teleconferencing equipment.

Tripler staff also would be available if civilian hospitals were overwhelmed with injured people, Howko said.

"We would do our best to provide that support and we would be a good neighbor and do the right thing," he said.

It's been 13 years since a major disaster — Hurricane Iniki on Sept. 11, 1992 — put these resources to the test.

Nearly all of the state's National Guard personnel were involved at one time or another over a month, Guard spokesman Anthony said. Another 5,000 active duty personnel, plus Guard personnel from the Mainland, were also involved.

C-130 cargo planes brought supplies from the Mainland, Navy ships and Marine helicopters ferried supplies to Kaua'i and Army soldiers cleared debris.

It was not a job the state's civilian community could have done alone, Anthony said.

"You needed everybody. You needed everybody's resources. No one agency or organization could have done it by itself."

There's something else that the military could provide in a chaotic post-disaster landscape and it isn't the kind of thing found in a warehouse of relief supplies. It was on Kaua'i after Iniki, said Lt. Ed Toy, a Hawai'i National Guard officer working with U.S. Army, Pacific as chief of current operations. Toy arrived with Guard personnel right after the hurricane and stayed for several months.

"I think the presence alone set the civilian population's mind at ease," he said.

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.