Thirteen members of the 101st Air Refueling Wing based in Bangor were preparing Thursday to leave today for the Gulf Coast, a Maine Air National Guard official confirmed.

“We are currently getting ready to ready the call,” Lt. Shanon Cotta, assistant director of public affairs for the Maine National Guard, said Thursday.

A formal announcement of any deployment of the guard was expected to be made today, he said.

Maine officials have provided lists of resources available in this state to their counterparts in Louisiana and other states hit hard by the hurricane. Security is one of those needs, as those preparing to leave from Maine will be providing a security force if deployed, Cotta said.

It wasn’t clear whether more members of the guard would be requested. Cotta said that would depend on the needs identified by officials on the Gulf Coast. But he said as they have done in the past, guard members are prepared to lend a hand when needed.

“The Maine National Guard stands ready to support hurricane relief efforts,” Cotta said.

Eleven volunteers from the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross already have left to assist in disaster relief efforts, and there are more scheduled to leave in the next few days.

Red Cross officials with the eastern and northern Maine chapter said they haven’t heard from the volunteers who left earlier this week to offer their services at a staging area in Houston, Texas.

Two Coast Guardsmen from Maine are among 16 from New England who were being deployed Thursday to the Gulf Coast in support of the service’s search-and-rescue and recovery operations after Hurricane Katrina. One is from Station Boothbay Harbor while the other is from Station South Portland.

The service members were departing from Air Station Cape Cod in Massachusetts via a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft. Also aboard the aircraft were 4,3420 bottles of water and other supplies.

Nestle Waters North America, parent company of Poland Spring, has sent more than a million bottles of water, including about 250,000 from Maine, to hurricane victims.

The Maine Credit Union League has started a fund that will send money to any state that requests help because of the hurricane.

Penn National Gaming Inc., which will open Hollywood Slots in Bangor, has established a toll-free employee assistance hot line for its displaced employees at the company’s Casino Magic-Bay St. Louis in Bay St. Louis, Miss., and the Boomtown Biloxi Casino in Biloxi, Miss.

Both casinos were severely damaged and remain closed. Access to the casinos remains limited, and the company doesn’t have enough information to determine the full extent of the damage, according to a press statement. Penn National is unable to provide an estimate on reopening dates for the two Mississippi casinos.

The company’s Casino Rouge property in Baton Rouge, La., reopened Tuesday.

Employees are being urged to call and let company officials know they are OK and how they can be helped.

The hot line, staffed by Penn National employees, will provide information on such things as payroll and benefits and potential employment opportunities for Gulf Coast employees at other Penn National properties while the company continues to assess the damage to its two casinos.

Penn National carries comprehensive business interruption and property insurance for both Casino Magic and Boomtown with an overall limit of $400 million, with deductibles.