Lakenheath Airman weathers Hurricane Katrina Published Sept. 12, 2005 ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England (AFPN) -- The world watched helplessly as Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast and left many people homeless or dead. Many people have watched the television news and seen video footage and photographs of the damage to Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., but one Airman here knows what it actually felt like to ride out Hurricane Katrina.Staff Sgt. Christopher Wiley, a 48th Communications Squadron satellite communications technician, was at Keesler attending a school when the Category 4 storm hit. Sergeant Wiley vividly remembers the days leading up to the storm hitting land in Biloxi, Miss. “On (Aug. 26), some friends and I went to a local restaurant to eat and heard about the hurricane heading our way,” he said. “We were eating and looking at the water, which looked pretty calm; at that time the hurricane was hitting the tip of Florida and wasn’t projected to hit the Biloxi area. “We talked to the bartender -- a local native -- who said the hurricane wouldn’t be that bad,” he said. “He had a pretty nonchalant attitude about the whole thing.”The bartender was wrong. A course instructor called Sergeant Wiley on Aug. 27 and instructed him to report to a base shelter Aug. 29 and to bring food, water and uniforms. On Aug. 27, Airmen began to board up buildings, said Sergeant Wiley. By Aug. 28, he received another call advising him to report to his designated shelter later that evening. As he prepared to go to the shelter he could hear others around him also preparing. “By (Aug. 28) people were taking the hurricane a lot more seriously,” Sergeant Wiley said. “I could here people around me packing, while others still were just … playing music as they waited to go to the shelters.”The weather worsened as the day went on. “It began raining, and I started to get scared,” Sergeant Wiley said. “I packed up my rucksack and left for the shelter to inprocess.”After inprocessing, he was assigned a room and watched movies for awhile before falling asleep. He was awakened around 12:30 a.m. by the sounds of the storm. “It had begun to rain and the winds had picked up,” he said. “There was no power. I went back to sleep, under a table this time.”More than 1,000 people shared Sergeant Wiley’s shelter. Shelter residents included trainees, families, students and single permanent party Airmen.The shelter provided a secure area for its inhabitants to ride out the storm. Some people even watched the storm through taped up windows. Sergeant Wiley was confined to the shelter for five days. During that time he only left to take part in cleanup efforts. He was required to maintain his presence in the shelter at all other times. Sergeant Wiley and his classmates were released to their home bases, and he returned here Sept. 4.“I don’t think the resources were there for us to remain there any longer,” Sergeant Wiley said. “The resources spent on us students who had completed our classes were better spent on base members who were in need of food and shelter. After accessing the damage, base (leaders) made the decision to release us, and I returned back to England.”For Sergeant Wiley, things will never be the same. “After witnessing the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, I have a new respect for Mother Nature,” he said. “The devastation caused by the storm was tremendous. The people there need our help.” (Courtesy of U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service)