Hurricane Dennis approached the
Emerald Coast and the base July 8, an area still trying to get back
to a sense of normalcy 10 months after Hurricane Ivan ripped
through the area of Eglin AFB.
When the maximum sustained winds of Hurricane Dennis peaked at
150 mph on July 8, Dennis made history as the strongest Atlantic
Basin hurricane on record for July and the strongest Atlantic
hurricane this early in the season.
This made local Airmen a little nervous.
“This is déjà vu,” said Col. Edmond
Keith, 96th Air Base Wing commander. “I can’t believe
we are doing this again in less than a year.”
Dennis weakened as it moved over Cuba and was downgraded from a
Category 5 to a Category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds of 90
mph after emerging into the Gulf of Mexico. Due north of the storm,
Airmen here were scurrying to prepare for the arrival of an
unwanted guest.
Although the trek across Cuba weakened Dennis, the storm
continued to move steadily to the northwest toward the east-central
Gulf Coast. The maximum sustained winds strengthened to 145 mph as
of July 10. All residents of the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the
west coast of Florida monitored the progress of Dennis very
closely, whether they evacuated or not.
“Any time there is a major storm like this, you have to
consider the worse-case scenario,” Colonel Keith said about
evacuating the Airmen and family members off the base to a safer
location. “You have to take the information available to
evacuate or not within 48 hours of land fall. If you wait to know,
it’ll be too late.”
Once the evacuation order was set, family storm plans were put
into motion and the base became a ghost town. Trash cans were tied
down, boats were tied up and items that could go airborne were put
away.
Maj. Gen. Robert W. Chedister, Air Armament Center commander
here, took a ride around the base as he did in the hours before
Hurricane Ivan hit in September 2004. There were families left on
base who did not follow the evacuation order then, and there were
trash cans that did not get tied down. This time was a completely
different story.
“Everything looks good,” the general said during his
trip. “That’s the advantage of having an experienced
and trained crew.”
With ride-out teams who would remain on base during the
hurricane in shelters, and a recovery team geared up at Robins Air
Force Base, Ga., the only thing officials could do was wait and see
what Hurricane Dennis would do.
July 10 was a “hurry up and wait” kind of day for
everyone, but the wait was worth it. The storm clocked sustained
winds of 65 mph with gusts of more than 100 mph, but the base was
spared any major damage. [ANN Salutes Senior Airman Mike Meares,
96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs]