[ad_1]
Secretary of the Air Force, Heather Wilson, and Chief of the Air Staff, General David Goldfein, go Sunday at a briefing at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, to talk to reporters about the state of the base, which suffered significant damage due to Hurricane Michael. (Carlos Munoz / Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Associated Press) (Carlos Munoz / AP)
Dan Lamothe
Reporter covering the Pentagon and the US Army
Hurricane Michael's move to an Air Force base last week caused enough damage that the service plans to transfer some airmen and their families until the base is rebuilt, military officials said Tuesday.
Tyndall Air Force Base, on the Florida Panhandle, was directly hit by the Category 4 storm of October 10, raising fears that jet planes that could not fly in advance were destroyed. On Wednesday, the Air Force will begin allowing families to go home to collect valuables and take pictures, but the base should take years to fully recover.
Brig. General John Allen Jr., director of the Civil Engineers department, compared the damage caused by the storm to what Hurricane Katrina caused in 2005 when it ravaged Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, in Missouri. In this case, it took almost five years full recovery.
"You can imagine what kind of effort awaits us," Allen said.
US Senators of Florida Marco Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D), along with Representative Neal Dunn (R), in letters to President Trump and the Department of Defense, urged the government to reaffirm its commitment to rebuild the Tyndall base and speed up the repair work there.
Airmen and their families are displaced throughout the region, although most of them are still in the crew when staying in hotels, with friends or in shelters. Nearby military installations, including Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field, assist some of them.
"We are going to have to make some serious decisions about whether families will return to this base," Brig said. General Edward Thomas, who visited base on Sunday.
Many F-22 raptors, worth more than $ 140 million each, are still in damaged hangars or destroyed during the storm, Thomas said. The air force evacuated as many aircraft as possible, but a number of them were left behind as a result of maintenance or waiting for new parts. Service officials refused to say how much had been damaged.
Thomas said that none of the Raptors facing Michael had been destroyed, but a lengthy assessment will be needed to determine the repairs they need. Visually, all the jets are intact and it seems that the hangars have mainly protected them even though the buildings have been roughed up by the storm, he said.
Once the raptors are removed from the debris, the air force will decide how best to repair them. At least five temporary hangars, each containing two F-22s, will be built on the flight line.
Thomas said he was struck during his visit to Tyndall by the way the flight line had been hit by the storm. On one side, most trees were flipped in one direction, he said. On the other hand, they were reversed in the opposite direction. The eye of the storm had crossed over us.
[ad_2]
Source link
