Westover C-5s evacuate

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. James Bishop
  • 439th AW Public Affairs
WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass --  By Saturday afternoon, all but two of the 18 C-5s here had been evacuated to bases in Florida and Ohio. Along a remote taxiway on the north end of the base, 100 trailers filled with emergency supplies stood ready to be delivered anywhere in New England.

Drivers brought large generators, food, blankets, bottled water, and tarps to a staging area on Taxiway R near the Dogpatch Training Grounds.

To the south, Hurricane Irene made landfall 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.

Base meteorologists forecast gusts of up to 87 mph when the hurricane hits Westover around 2 p.m. Sunday.

Forecasters say this is the biggest hurricane in the northeast since 1985, when Hurricane Gloria pounded the East Coast with winds up to 145 mph, causing eight deaths and $1.8 billion in damage.

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

Westover has 16 C-5 Bs assigned, another 2 C-5 As were temporarily on base.

In addition, about 105 trailers loaded with bottled water, generators, tarps, food, and other emergency supplies arrived here Aug. 26 and 27 as the Federal Emergency Management Agency prepared for the Aug. 28 hurricane.

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

Westover serves as a FEMA Incident Support Base for emergencies such as this. In September, 2010, in preparation for Hurricane Earl, the base was used for the first time as a staging point for FEMA Region I, which encompasses all of New England, said Bob Perreault, Chief of Emergency Management at Westover. The exercise proved to be a valuable dry run for this year's tempest.

"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."

When the evacuated and diverted aircraft return after the hurricane, they can be used to transport relief supplies, said Col. Vautrain.