Our first priority is to save lives. We're assisting local officials in New Orleans in evacuating any remaining citizens from the affected area. I want to thank the state of Texas, and particularly Harris County, and the city of Houston and officials with the Houston Astrodome for providing shelter to those citizens who found refuge in the Superdome in Louisiana. Buses are on the way to take those people from New Orleans to Houston.
FEMA's deployed more than 50 disaster medical assistance teams from all across the country to help the affected -- to help those in the affected areas. FEMA's deployed more than 25 urban search-and- rescue teams with more than a thousand personnel to help save as many lives as possible. The United States Coast Guard is conducting search-and-rescue missions. They're working alongside local officials, local assets.
The Coast Guard has rescued nearly 2,000 people to date.
The Department of Defense is deploying major assets to the region. These include the USS Batton to conduct search-and-rescue missions, eight swift water rescue teams, the Iwo Jima Amphibious Readiness Group to help with disaster response equipment and the hospital ship, USNS Comfort to help provide medical care.
The National Guard is nearly 11,000 guardsmen on state active duty to assist governors and local officials with security and disaster response efforts. FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers are working around the clock with Louisiana officials to repair the breaches in the levees, so we can stop the flooding in New Orleans.
Our second priority is to sustain lives by ensuring adequate food, water, shelter and medical supplies for survivors and dedicated citizens -- or dislocated citizens. FEMA's moving supplies and equipment into the hardest hit areas. The Department of Transportation has provided more than 400 trucks to move a thousand truck loads containing 5.4 million meals ready to eat or MREs, 13.4 million liters of water, 10,400 tarps, 3.4 million pounds of ice, 144 generators, 20 containers of pre-positioned disaster supplies, 135,000 blankets and 11,000 cots, and we're just starting.
There are more than 78,000 people now in shelters. HHS and CDC are working with local officials to identify operating hospital facilities, so we can help them, help the nurses and doctors provide necessary medical care. They're distributing medical supplies, and they're executing a public health plan to control disease and other health-related issues that might arise.
Our third priority is executing a comprehensive recovery effort. We are focusing on restoring power and lines of communication that have been knocked out during the storm. We'll be repairing major roads and bridges and other essential means of transportation as quickly as possible.
