This is not unusual. The army (not just the Guard) was deployed after Andrew and other major disasters. There is a SeaBee base in Gulfport and I assume they will be put to work at disaster relief if they have the troops available (not overseas). The army tradition in disasters goes back to at least the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 after which the commander of the Presidio, the local army base, ran the town and the relief effort for some time.

I saw one bit of film of an obviously poor African-American family in Houma whose home had been wrecked, but what was left had already been looted by the time they could get back to it. I certainly think if it takes the army--and I'm pretty sure it will--to stop this sort of thing, they need to send them (if, as I've been saying, they've got them) in sooner rather than later. Also, the army has a lot of equipment--heavy trucks, helos, amphibian vehicles--that will be very helpful.