Hurricane MICHAEL: Military Impact
Along with unbelievable devastation within some communities in the Florida Panhandle, particularly where Hurricane MICHAEL actually came ashore, on the military side, the storm damage at Tyndall Air Force Base has been described as “catastrophic.” Fortunately, all base personnel, military and civilian, were under a mandatory evacuation, so it appears that there were no on-base injuries. Tyndall’s operational aircraft were flown out to other Air Force installations prior to the storm’s arrival.
A Facebook post from the Tyndall command team indicated that “every building has severe damage. Many buildings are a complete loss.” A senior military officer at another installation, fully aware of Tyndall’s damage status, indicated that 100% of the base housing was now uninhabitable. With no power or utilities (as of the above referenced FB post), and with such wide-spread severe damage, needless to say, the base is closed and may well remain so for several weeks, if not longer. Needless to say, it will doubtless take many millions, if not billions, of dollars to reconstruct this important Air Force facility, hopefully then returning it to full operational capability.
Most other regional military installations, those away from the storm’s direct path, made it through with little, or manageable, storm damage. All were back operational (perhaps not fully so) by week’s end, with some on the fringes of the storm’s path actually calling personnel back just one day after MICHAEL made landfall.
Coastal Georgia installations, Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Air Field, had little or no damage, and were back in operation the day after landfall. No reports of any damage at the 165th GA Air Guard facilities, or those of the Air Guard’s Air Dominance Center, both units located at the airfield on Savannah’s west side. We were extremely fortunate in the coastal GA region to have avoided MICHAEL’s wrath.
(Quotes via Stars & Stripes.com, Corey Dickstein, 10-11-18)