11:51 a.m. FARGO, N.D. (AP) - Twenty-eight members of a North Dakota National Guard water purification unit had expected to be helping victims of Hurricane Katrina for up to two months. Now they are preparing to return home along with tons of equipment that never was used.

The members of the 136th Quartermaster Battalion left for the Gulf Coast on Sept. 5, to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. They were stationed at the Camp Shelby Training Center in Mississippi, but spent much of the time waiting for an assignment before receiving orders to return home.

Chief Warrant Officer Shane Arlien said the reasons are still unclear, but they may have to do with the confusion in the aftermath of the huge disaster. Arlien said the unit, which also served in the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, is set up to provide safe water to small communities.

Most of the attention in the aftermath of Katrina has been focused on damage in big cities, but the devastation in the rural area where the unit has been staying, some 100 miles inland, is just as bad, Arlien said.

"It is a little bit frustrating," Arlien told KFGO radio, "but we consumed a lot of our time doing humanitarian aid missions here and in a few local communities south of us."

Guard members worked in food shelters, helped church groups and others clean up debris, he said.

"For some reason, nothing was coordinated with hospitals or local, small cities. We have (in the past) been tied in with small cities' (water) systems to get them up and running," he said.

The 136th, which can produce 3,000 gallons of pure water an hour, was making arrangements Thursday to return to North Dakota, possibly by the weekend, Arlien said.