US Navy ships assisting with hurricane relief efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi made preparations Tuesday to get out of the way of Hurricane Rita, the Pentagon said.
Meanwhile, the US military has moved military planning cells and eight helicopters into Florida, the first state in the path of the newest hurricane headed for the Gulf of Mexico, a spokesman said.
"I think it is fair to say there is a heightened sensitivity in the wake of Katrina," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
"But these are things that the Defense Department, in any severe weather conditions, does with respect to assisting states with the planning cells, the defense coordinating offices and protecting its own assets, too," he said.
The hospital ship USS Comfort, sent to Pascagoula, Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, is due to set sail Tuesday to avoid the storm, he said.
The USS Iwo Jima, a helicopter carrier that was used as the headquarters for the US military operation, and the USS Shreveport are preparing to follow on Wednesday from New Orleans.
The USS Grapple, a salvage ship, was moving to Pensacola, Florida, and the USS Tortuga was on its way to Panama City, Whitman said.
Rita, which has been declared a category-one hurricane, was on a track Tuesday that will take it over the Florida Keys into the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas.
An air force reserve base in Homestead, Florida has been designated as a staging area for the federal response to the storm.
The USS Bataan, which is carrying six helicopters, was in Mayport, Florida on Tuesday, taking on supplies for a voyage back into the Gulf behind the storm, the US Northern Command said.
The command said its operations center in Colorado Springs, Colorado was keeping close watch over the storm to keep military assets in the region safe and ready to respond to federal requests for aid.
The command has set up military planning cells in Tallahassee, Florida and Austin, Texas to coordinate with federal and state authorities.
About 55,000 troops were in the Louisiana and Mississippi area helping with the recovery from Katrina, the category-four hurricane that flooded New Orleans and devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
As of Tuesday, there were 170 helicopters and 10 navy and coast guard ships in the area.
"I think until we better understand what Rita is going to do and where Rita is going to go that you'll see us hold at the level we are right now," Whitman said.
