Evacuation decision easily made

  • Published
  • By Lois A. Walsh
  • Air Armament Center Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) --  It was a toss of the coin -- move thousands of people out of harms way early or wait until the path of Hurricane Ivan was defined.

It was a decision that Col. Ed Keith, 96th Air Base Wing commander, did not hesitate to make. More than 20,000 base employees and their families faced mandatory evacuation Sept. 14. In Georgia, both Robins Air Force Base and Fort Benning opened reception centers to shelter the evacuees.

The storm was still off the coast of Cuba when the commander reached that decision point. Although Florida’s panhandle escaped threats from Hurricanes Bonnie, Charlie and Frances, all indications pointed to the fact that its luck had run out.

“Watching the category path and with our experiences with Hurricane Opal in 1995, we had to move people early,” said Col. Michael Nowak, 96th ABW vice commander. “With the increased number of people (in the area), we knew this was going to be a large evacuation; and based on what we’ve seen so far, it was a good decision.”

Residents of the base and its surrounding communities took the storm’s threat seriously. Base entry gates, normally a bustling time during morning rush hour, were down to one lane Sept. 15, with the gate guards peering out from their shelter to check identification when a car approached.

Streets that usually carry a steady stream of traffic to major work centers were eerily empty. Not a plane was seen or heard along the base’s flightline as the F-15 Eagles flew the coop to safer haven at Dyess AFB, Texas, and Nellis AFB, Nev. During Hurricane Frances, the planes were sheltered locally.

“We knew this was a different storm when (we compared it) to the previous storms we had this summer,” said Col. Bob Nolan, 46th Test Wing commander. “Our weather folks told us that there was a high probability that Ivan would come on shore with (winds) of 120 mph. We knew right away [that] we wanted to get our folks and our aircraft into a safe location early.”

Throughout the storm, a small contingent of mission-critical people are holding down the fort. A crew of civil engineers, security forces and firefighters are watching and waiting as the storm approaches. Supplies of packaged meals and bottled water line the hallways in the headquarters building, as the shelter team registered the crew so everyone is accounted for.

Each year, officials here hold a basewide hurricane exercise. That practice came in handy now that Hurricane Ivan is barreling its way toward the base, they said.

“With each storm this summer, we’ve stepped up our preparations,” said Sonny Reeves, battlestaff director. “We’ve exercised everything to do for the hurricane.”

Mr. Reeves said everything is going well, and the most difficult part was determining where to set up an evacuation site not knowing where the storm is heading.

“You don’t know where to go,” he said, “without a creating a bottleneck. You have to make sure you make the right decision.”

Hurricane Ivan is expected to hit the panhandle early Sept. 16.