GOVERNORS TELL OF WAR'S IMPACT ON LOCAL NEEDS

[MaryH]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/20/national/20guard.html?hp

Seattle: July 19, With tens of thousands of their citizen soldiers now deployed in Iraq, many of the nation's governors complained on Sunday to senior Pentagon officials that they were facing severe manpower shortages in guarding prisoners, fighting wildfires, preparing for hurricans and floods and policing the streets.

Concern among the governors about the war's impact at home has been rising for months, but it came into sharp focus this weekend as they gathered for their four-day annual conference here and began comparing the problems they faced from the National Guard's largest callup since WW II. On Sunday, the governors held a closed-door meeting with the two top Pentagon officials and voiced their concerns about the impact both on the troops' families and on the states' ability to deal with disasters and crimes.