The Corner is covering “tornado politics” today as well as Denis Boyles. And if press questions from yesterday are any indication, it looks like this storyline will be with us for the duration of the war.

Q Tony, looking beyond this Kansas situation to the evolving tornado season and the hurricane season coming, does the administration feel that with all of these Guard units deployed, that there are enough resources for coming big disasters?
MR. SNOW: We certainly hope so. Again, you don’t want to make predictions, but on the other hand, there is an enormous amount of planning going on so that you have the flexibility. A lot of things have been pre-positioned, both for tornado and hurricane. It is a subject of continuous planning.
Q But those are FEMA resources. What about the Guard itself?
MR. SNOW: The National Guard also — the National Guard — if you take a look at the way the National Guard units are dispersed, you still have considerable strength in each state, and also you still have the ability of governors to seek assistance from neighboring states.
So — let me put it this way: Everybody is certainly doing their very best to make sure that the assets and the individuals and the planning and everything that are necessary — there are also planning requirements for states, when it comes to putting together their plans, and they’re supposed to report to us so that we can coordinate with them on the steps that may be necessary. But nobody can ever predict how, when or where something like this is going to strike, but it certainly remains a priority.
Q To what extent are disaster — potential disaster needs taken into consideration when deployment numbers are —
MR. SNOW: Again, I think, look, potential disaster — you keep trying to say, if we’re going to have National Guard units in Iraq protecting Americans you’re not going to be able to deal with disasters here at home. The fact is you do have, as I just pointed out, more than 6,000 available units, and there’s only 566 deployed right now in Kansas — 6,800 available. So there are, in fact, large amounts — large numbers of individuals and equipment available.
Furthermore, again, you do have plans on how you get assistance from other states and certain units that can provide logistical support. For instance, the FM radios we were discussing today came from Kentucky. So you do have plans and you do figure out ways to share. You have conversations about the helicopters with the states of Oklahoma and Texas. Again, I’m not sure if they’re going to need them; if they do, the conversations are ongoing.
Q Tony, how much is the disaster response effort impacted by the war?
MR. SNOW: I think they’re separate issues. The war —
Q Aren’t they shared resources?
MR. SNOW: They’re shared resources, but on the other hand, it is not something that you can’t — just as in a time of war, the Pentagon plans for more than one conflict at a time, you have to be able to do more than one thing at a time. So the fact that you have people deployed in a time of war to protect Americans is important; but at the same time, you also maintain your capability of dealing with domestic concerns.
Q There is no impact?
MR. SNOW: I don’t know. I don’t know how you measure. How would I measure — I’m not being snarky in giving — I just don’t know how you measure that.
Q You look at the available equipment and you see how much of it is overseas.
MR. SNOW: Well, the fact is, again, taking a look at what you’re talking about, in many cases, vital equipment for Kansas — they have more than 100 percent of their National Guard requisition in Kansas now, including 2.5-ton trucks, and 5-ton trucks and a lot of that stuff.
There are a number of things that are appropriate for a time of war that are not necessarily going to be helpful to you in a time of rescue. Also keep in mind, it is not solely a National Guard responsibility. And in a time like this, again, great American tradition, pulling together assets from a variety of different sources so that you respond to the needs and you get to the site what you need. And in this particular case, people responded swiftly.
And the Governor and others — if you look at some of the immediate responses, people said, yes, they were pleased with the response. And the most important thing to do is to continue working with the Governor and with authorities in Kansas to help these people.