{"id":25133,"date":"2020-08-07T20:23:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T20:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/08\/07\/after-massive-floods-offutt-looks-to-build-a-better-base\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:42:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:42:54","slug":"after-massive-floods-offutt-looks-to-build-a-better-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/08\/07\/after-massive-floods-offutt-looks-to-build-a-better-base\/","title":{"rendered":"After massive flood, Offutt looks to build a better base"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In March 2019, the waters of the Missouri River engulfed dozens of buildings and more than half a mile of runway<\/a> at Offutt Air Force Base<\/a> in Nebraska, forced nine aircraft to evacuate and displaced thousands of personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But nearly a year and a half later, Offutt is well on the road to recovery<\/a> from these devastating floods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in some ways, according to the officer overseeing the rebuilding effort, the flood has had a \u201csilver lining,\u201d allowing Offutt to rebuild in a better, more thoughtful way for the missions of its future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis gives us an opportunity to foundationally rebuild the base for the Air Force\u2019s next generation of warfighting,\u201d said Lt. Col. Christopher Conover, director of the program management office in charge of rebuilding Offutt, in a July 24 interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flooding began to overwhelm Offutt on March 15, 2019, forcing the base to evacuate nine aircraft. About 700 airmen filled 235,000 sandbags in a valiant, but ultimately unsuccessful, effort to hold the waters back. About one-third of the base, including 3,000 feet of runway, was flooded by 720 million gallons of water infested with raw sewage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 3,200 personnel were driven out of their workspaces. Those service members and employees are still in temporary workspaces \u2014 primarily the 80-year-old Glenn L. Martin-Nebraska Bomber Plant, which produced B-29s during World War II, including the Enola Gay and Bockscar bombers that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, 137 facilities \u2014 everything from full-fledged buildings to structures as small as generators, hydrants or guard houses \u2014 were damaged in the flood. About 60 buildings were deemed unsalvageable and slated for destruction. About 1.2 million square feet of work space \u2014 including 118,000 square feet of SCIF, or secure, compartmented information facilities, space for handling highly classified material \u2014 was destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The base\u2019s reconstruction effort \u2014 which the Air Force said would cost $420 million, plus another $234 million to replace three destroyed simulators \u2014 will likely not be done for six more years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, Conover said, work is already well under way \u2014 and the base is taking the opportunity to rethink how Offutt is structured and find more efficient ways to do business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Offutt plans its reconstruction, it\u2019s aiming for a much more well-thought-out layout, Conover said. The base is planning eight campuses, with 26 new facilities, that will group similar missions together: most importantly, nuclear command and control alert forces, but also satellite communications; multi-domain operations supporting signals intelligence missions; security forces; logistics; flightline operations. including fuels, liquid oxygen and maintenance; and the base lake recreation facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Floodwaters from the Missouri River overtook a large portion of the airfield at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska over the weekend. At least nine aircraft were evacuated. (Air Force)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another campus will handle an emergency power micro-grid, with three interconnected power stations across the base, to provide backup power to critical facilities during power outages. Conover said this is crucial, because all of Offutt\u2019s backup generators were destroyed in the flood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offutt began planning these new campuses seven months after the flood. The base has now finished the planning phase, and has moved on to the design phase. Logistics is the easiest to design \u2014 using practically an off-the-shelf plan \u2014 and is the furthest along, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But others will be more complex and take longer. The multi-domain operations campus, for example, will start being designed this October and will likely take an entire year to finish. Construction on the multi-domain campus is expected to begin in January 2022, and finish in July 2026, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t