Hurricane's fury misses Westover

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. James Bishop
  • 439th AW Public Affairs
WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. --  The day before Hurricane Irene was due to hit Westover, all but two of the 18 C-5s here had been evacuated to bases in Florida, Ohio, and Delaware. Along a remote taxiway on the north end of the base, 61 trailers filled with emergency supplies stood ready to be delivered anywhere in New England.

To the south, Hurricane Irene made landfall Aug. 27 near Cape Lookout, N.C., with sustained winds of 85 mph and gusts up to 115 mph. The Category I hurricane crept north/northeast at 14 mph, according to the National Weather Service, killing nearly 40 people and causing an estimated $7-20 billion in damage, according to multiple reports.
The hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached Massachusetts on Sunday, Aug. 28. Base meteorologists said the maximum wind gusts here were 46 mph on Sunday. The rainfall that day of 3.2 inches set a new one-day record, more than tripling the previous record of .92 inches set in 1970.

In anticipation of Sunday's storm, Air Force planners diverted two C-5 aircraft from Westover Aug. 25, and the remaining 16 C-5s on base evacuated Aug. 26 - 27 to MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., Dover AFB, Del., and Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Westover has 16 C-5Bs assigned, another two C-5As were temporarily on base.

In addition, 61 trailers loaded with bottled water, large generators, tarps, food, and other emergency supplies arrived here Aug. 26 and 27 as the Federal Emergency Management Agency prepared for hurricane response in the northeast.

Drivers brought supplies to a staging area on Taxiway R near the Dogpatch Training Grounds.

President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts on Aug. 27. The previous day, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency and called up 2,500 members of the National Guard.

About 7,675 citizen-soldiers and -airmen from 18 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico responded Aug. 28 to support hurricane relief efforts, the National Guard Bureau reported.

Guard members cleared debris and performed high-water search-and-rescue missions in Connecticut, officials said. They helped transportation officials control traffic in the District of Columbia, and handed out cots and supplies in Delaware. They flew helicopters from Alaska, Florida, Mississippi, New Mexico and Ohio to stand by in the affected region for search and rescue, damage assessment, transportation and other missions.

Citizen-soldiers and -airmen provided command-and-control support in Maine, filled sandbags and assessed damage in Massachusetts, performed search and rescue and provided security and transportation in North Carolina, and provided shelter in New Jersey.

Also on Aug. 27, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a prepare-to-deploy order for 6,500 active-duty service members from all of the services to support hurricane relief efforts if ordered, Pentagon spokesman George Little said. The Pentagon reported that Secretary Panetta said Westover would be a staging area for FEMA.

Westover serves as a FEMA Incident Support Base for emergencies such as this. In September 2010, in preparation for Hurricane Earl, the base debuted as a staging point for FEMA Region I, which encompasses all of New England, said Bob Perreault, chief of emergency management at Westover. Last year's exercise proved to be a valuable dry run for this year's tempest.

Once a storms winds are forecast to reach a "trigger point" around 70 knots, the aircraft have to evacuate according to operations managers.

"Taxpayers have a lot of money invested in these C-5s, and we are taking precautions to protect the aircraft," said Col. Steven Vautrain, 439th Airlift Wing commander. "We're supporting FEMA and are preparing to support any search and rescue operations."