MacDill dodges major storm damage as people, planes remain evacuated

MacDill Air Drive Base in Tampa, Florida, noticed vital rain and powerful winds as Hurricane Milton reduce throughout the state Wednesday night time, however the base seems to have prevented the worst of the storm.

As of Thursday, timber are down, some roads are impassable and low-lying areas are flooded, stated Capt. Kaitlin Butler, chief of public affairs for the sixth Air Refueling Wing. Nonetheless, the flooding didn’t attain any of the bottom’s buildings, she stated, and injury seems to be restricted. No accidents have to this point been reported.

“We’re extremely lucky to have been spared the anticipated storm surge, and the winds didn’t gust any stronger than they did,” Col. Ed Szczepanik, commander of the sixth Air Refueling Wing, stated in a video posted on social media Thursday.

However with roads nonetheless riddled with storm particles, evacuated MacDill personnel and households can not return but, Szcezpanik stated.

Milton terrified many within the area earlier this week because it swiftly grew to Class 5 standing, coming solely two weeks after Hurricane Helene slammed into the northwestern a part of Florida and left a lethal path of destruction throughout the Southeast.

However wind shear, or a sudden change within the wind’s route that may trigger turbulence for airplanes, started to weaken Milton because it approached Florida. It ended up monitoring to the south and making landfall as a Class 3 hurricane close to Siesta Key, about an hour south of Tampa.

Whereas the storm dumped a big quantity of rain on still-saturated MacDill and winds reached greater than 90 miles per hour, the bottom was lucky {that a} storm surge didn’t materialize the best way it did throughout Helene, Butler stated. Helene’s storm surge reached a record-breaking 7 ft, 9 inches in some locations on base, inflicting floods and knocking out energy to the bottom.

MacDill stays closed and largely evacuated, and it was not but recognized when folks and planes will return, Butler stated. The restricted evacuation order will stay in place at the very least by Thursday, she stated, to maintain folks secure and guarantee they don’t find yourself getting caught on harmful or impassable roads attempting to get again to MacDill.

A hurricane restoration staff is now working its manner by MacDill figuring out and addressing injury or doubtlessly harmful spots, Butler stated.

MacDill, dwelling of the sixth and 927th air refueling wings and headquarters of U.S. Particular Operations Command and U.S. Central Command, has about 5,250 service members and 1,350 civilian personnel, in addition to relations who dwell on base.

As Milton approached Florida over the weekend after forming within the Gulf of Mexico, the bottom started to evacuate its plane and personnel. Two of the bottom’s KC-135 Stratotankers that couldn’t be flown out had been saved in hangars, whereas 13 others had been evacuated to McConnell Air Drive Base in Kansas. Different KC-135s are conducting operational missions elsewhere.

About 185 base personnel are working out of an emergency operations heart at Raymond James Stadium, the Air Drive stated.