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Navy families, bases recover after Gustav

The Navy and Coast Guard are recovering from Hurricane Gustav, which killed more than 100 people in the U.S. and Caribbean over the past two weeks.

Navy spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said 10,724 Navy active and reserve personnel, family members and Navy civilian employees were evacuated from bases in five states. Dozens of aircraft were flown inland from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans, NAS Pensacola and NAS Whiting Field, Fla.; and naval assets at six civilian shipyards along the Gulf Coast were secured before the hurricane’s U.S. landfall Monday.

Naval Support Activity New Orleans, NAS JRB New Orleans, and Naval Construction Battalion Command Gulfport, Miss., were completely evacuated.

As of noon Thursday, Cody said 98.6 percent of 67,248 Navy active and reserve personnel, family members, civilian employees and contractors were accounted for. No storm-related Navy fatalities or injuries have been reported, he said.

Affected shipyards should resume full production activity by Sept. 8, Cody said. Each of the evacuated bases is also on its way to a quick recovery.

“Normal operations have resumed at Gulfport, and most aircraft have returned to NAS Pensacola and NAS Whiting Field,” Cody said. “By midday Thursday, all power had been restored to NSA New Orleans, and the commissary and exchange were being resupplied. By midday Thursday, power has been restored to vital facilities at NAS JRB New Orleans but not to housing. The airfields are intact and they have sufficient fuel for normal operations.

“When strong storms hit, the Navy knows how to respond and is ready,” Cody said. “Commands made appropriate preparations to ensure continuous operational readiness ashore and at sea and to care for the Navy family when Gustav struck the Gulf Coast. The Navy has since moved from the response phase to recovery, maintaining operational control of its assets throughout the process.”

The Coast Guard’s 8th District command and Incident Management Team temporarily relocated from New Orleans to St. Louis to oversee hurricane response operations.

The team set up a hot line for families of Coast Guard personnel responding to Hurricane Gustav. That hot line’s operators fielded calls from family members requesting information about service members who they were unable to contact.