Agencies, utilities prepare to aid Katrina victims

Bay State relief agencies and utilities were poised yesterday to send help to Louisiana and Mississippi as soon as they receive assessments of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Those agencies were also battening down local systems in case storms affect this region.

''Our crews are known for going down there as needed, and we have let the folks down South know that we are available," said Mike Durand, an NStar spokesman. ''You never know until the call is made."

The American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay was also in a holding pattern. Though it has sent a few volunteers down and plans to send more, it is focusing on increasing blood supplies and ensuring that the state is covered in case Katrina ends up causing damage in New England.

''When the call comes, they have to be able to go within 24 hours and stay for two weeks," said Deborah Jackson, chief operating officer for the area Red Cross. ''Clearly, a big part of our concern is that need to sustain local response capability as well. We don't know what impact we might get up here tangentially."

As local forces prepared to deploy, the Associated Press reported that a Manchester, N.H., electrician died in a highway accident en route to help restore power to people affected by Katrina.

William McLaughlin, 51, was driving in a Federal Emergency Management Agency Mobile Emergency Response Support team convoy Sunday in Virginia when his tanker's left front tire blew out.

Authorities said the tanker ran off Interstate 81 and overturned. McLaughlin was the only person in the vehicle.

Rich McLaughlin said his brother loved to help others and had just returned from a three-week stint helping people in the Pensacola, Fla., area affected by Hurricane Dennis.

''He'd stand by the phone waiting for the phone to ring just to go because he knew he'd be helping somebody," his brother said.

The storm, which has wreaked havoc on the South, is not expected to head toward the Atlantic Ocean, said Chris Vaccaro, a National Weather Service spokesman. ''Its projected path is the Eastern Great Lakes region," Vaccaro said. ''It will weaken rapidly and become a depression over the Ohio Valley [today]."

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts National Guard is ready to aid. Only 1,000 of the state's 8,000 members of the guard have been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places across the globe, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Smith, Massachusetts National Guard spokesman.

''There is a common misperception that we're all in Iraq," Smith said. ''Seven-eighths of our troops are available or emergency relief operations."

Adrienne P. Samuels can be reached at asamuels@globe.com.