Military leaders, still struggling to clean up the mess from hurricanes that wreaked havoc on East Coast bases last year, warned Congress this week that failing to deal with the damage now will have long-term consequences.
Gen. Gary Thomas told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness Thursday that the $3.7 billion in damage Hurricane Florence caused the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune in September is “easy to see.”
“If I were to paint a picture, what you’ve got is 800 buildings that were severely damaged,” said Thomas, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps. “Many of those buildings are old, you know, they’re decades old. We continue to operate in what I would consider a little bit of an expeditionary environment.”
Thomas said he recently visited a Camp Lejeune tank battalion and saw a young Marine sitting at a desk in a building that had a wall open to the outside. He also witnessed an aircrew forced to do its mission planning in an airplane hangar because it was the only place it could guarantee was dry.
“Marines do what you’d expect Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen to do,” said Thomas. “It’s cleaned up, it’s neat, but when it rains, all those buildings are covered in water. So it has a significant impact on us. And I think as we go forward without additional relief, what we are going to be forced to do is take some of the funds from our training, maintenance of equipment, and infrastructure elsewhere in the Corps to address the problem.”
Camp Lejeune is known as the home of “Expeditionary Forces in Readiness.” The North Carolina installation hosts about a third of the Corps’ total combat power, including more than 47,000 Marines and sailors. Damage from Florence has contributed to a degradation of that combat power’s readiness, according to Marine Corps commandant Gen. Robert Neller.
Gen. Stephen Wilson, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, said his service has suffered “devastating impacts” from natural disasters at Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Fla., and Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
“At Tyndall Air Force Base alone, $4.7 billion of damage,” said Wilson. “Ninety-five percent of the facilities were either destroyed or damaged. We’ve covered those costs within our accounts to date, but that is not supportable.”
Nearly a third of Tyndall’s 700 structures were completely destroyed by Hurricane Michael in October. The severity of the storm forced the base’s commander to evacuate 11,000 personnel at the time. Tyndall is home to the 325th Fighter Wing, which trains F-22A fighter pilots and maintenance crews.
President Trump surveyed the damage to Tyndall with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis Wednesday. Trump promised officials that the base will be rebuilt “better than ever.” Wilson and his fellow vice chiefs reached out to Congress for assistance the next day.
“[W]e are asking for your help,” said Wilson. “You’re our insurance policy for natural disasters.”
Wilson said some of Tyndall’s repairs had to be stopped May 1 due to a lack of funding. The Air Force will eliminate 18,000 flight training hours starting in September to help cover the cost of the cleanup, and on May 15, the Air Force plans to stop some of its depot inputs, which Wilson said could “have a long-term impact.” Come June, the service will have to start canceling major exercises.
“Any of that creates a big impact and will ripple through not just this year, but into future readiness, and that’s why we’ve been so insistent upon additional disaster supplemental funding,” said Wilson.
The White House has been at odds with Congress over a supplemental disaster relief bill for states hit by last year’s hurricanes. The House of Representatives passed a $19 billion bill Friday, despite Trump’s objections regarding excessive funding for Puerto Rico, which he claims mismanaged previous aid.
