Military bases throughout the southeastern U.S. were still assessing damage to their installations on Friday after Helene made landfall in Florida the prior evening as a Category 4 hurricane, causing massive flooding and deaths.
More than 4,000 members of the National Guard had been deployed to help out in the wake of the storm, which clocked winds around 130 mph but was quickly downgraded to a tropical storm early Friday morning as it began to slow. Storm surges, power outages and widespread flooding occurred along the storm’s path, including at bases such as MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
“MacDill AFB received significant storm surge (in line with local record water levels) and is still experiencing flooding along low-lying areas of the base,” the installation shared on its Facebook page. “We expect waters to recede more quickly once we pass high tide, and as the day progresses. Additionally, power is out to much of the base, and there is a large amount of debris on the roads.”
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As Helene progressed to Georgia, caused more flooding in the Southeast, and barreled onward to the Tennessee valley, many bases began to assess damage and start to clean up.
“Cleanup efforts across the base are underway as Marines are removing yard waste and debris caused by the storm,” Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina said on Facebook Friday. Similarly, Moody Air Force Base in Georgia wrote “dangerous conditions remain, including downed trees, power lines, and debris.”
Air Force officials told Military.com that they weren’t tracking any major damage Friday afternoon.
Navy installations near Helene’s path “incurred minor damage, such as fallen trees,” Navy Region Southeast spokesperson Arwen FitzGerald told Military.com, who added that “all installations are now fully operational and mission ready.”
Officials from the Army did not respond in time for publication.
Many of the Air Force’s installations in the South began evacuating aircraft earlier this week in anticipation of the storm. Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle moved F-35 fighter jets to Nevada and Oklahoma; Moody Air Force Base relocated C-130s, A-10s and HH-60s to Mississippi; Joint Base Charleston, S.C., relocated C-17s to Ohio, Delaware and Maryland; and MacDill moved KC-135s to Maine and New Hampshire.
Pentagon officials told Military.com that the Navy relocated four ships as well as some planes out of Naval Station Mayport in Florida prior to the storm and secured the remaining ships.
Hundreds of National Guardsmen have been deployed to support their states, including roughly 3,900 in Florida, an estimated 350 in North Carolina, 300 in Georgia and approximately 40 in Alabama, according to the Pentagon.
President Joe Biden’s administration approved pre-landfall emergency declarations for Florida, Georgia and North Carolina on Thursday. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell said in a press release that “people need to take this seriously.”
At least 25 people had been killed across four states due to the storm, CNN reported Friday afternoon.
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