Blue Angels Return To Find Base In Tatters

The runway is open -- but only for emergencies. Some buildings have power -- but only a few. Devastation is everywhere at NAS Pensacola (FL).

That's what the Blue Angels found when they returned to their home base Saturday, canceling appearances at Nantucket (MA) and NAS Oceania (VA). They rushed back to Pensacola to help in the cleanup after Hurricane Ivan.

"I don't even know what to say," Cmdr. Russ Bartlett told the Associated Press. "There are giant trees down all over the place. It's amazing."

"It would be disingenuous to be flying air shows when we can be doing good work here," he said. Bartlett told the St. Petersburg Times he ordered the Blue Angels' Fat Albert C-130 unloaded to make way for some cargo missions to ferry supplies and resources to the base.

But even among the signs of disaster, there was hope. "The airfield is already functional, so we're already making a comeback," said Capt. John Pruitt.

An emergency operations center had been established near the runway and workers were out moving the huge amounts of debris left behind by the storm.

It's mostly water damage. We're just trying to clean it up and make it inhabitable," Petty Officer 2nd Class Wayne Buchanan told the AP. He was staying at a nearby shelter set up in a high school after Ivan swarmed the base. "It's better than doing nothing, at least we can come back and hang around our own barracks."

None of the aircraft in the active fleet were damaged by the storm, but that can't be said for the vintage warbirds at the Museum of Naval Aviation. Many aircraft were destroyed outright. A C-47 "Gooney Bird" lost a wing. An S-6 lost parts of its cockpit to Ivan.

"We're over the emotional part of seeing the damage," Pruitt told the Associated Press, "and moving on to fixing it."

But that will be a monumental task. NAS Pensacola officials say 90-percent of the base's buildings suffered damage in the storm. The cleanup could last months.

FMI: www.navy.mil