{"id":67960,"date":"2018-10-10T21:36:59","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T21:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/10\/10\/will-hurricane-michael-remnants-hit-your-military-base\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:31:13","slug":"will-hurricane-michael-remnants-hit-your-military-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2018\/10\/10\/will-hurricane-michael-remnants-hit-your-military-base\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the remnants of Hurricane Michael hit your military base?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hurricane Michael <\/a>sliced through the Florida Panhandle mid-Wednesday, hitting towns that had prepared for a Category 2 storm but found themselves in the cross hairs of a Category 4 hurricane instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the storm is aiming up the southeastern coast of the U.S., home to thousands of military families that just had a brush with Hurricane Florence<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Michael had not been expected to intensify as it did, thousands of coastal residents decided to ride it out at home, said Air Force Gen. Terrence O\u2019Shaughnessy, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command. There are 10 military bases, with a combined 700,000 military members and their families in Michael\u2019s path, and not all of them evacuated, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of my key concerns right now going into is that we haven\u2019t seen as robust of an evacuation response from the civilian population that we have seen in other storms,” O\u2019Shaughnessy said. \u201cI think its because of the way it kind of played out. Many are well prepared to go through a Cat 1 or Cat 2 storm, but it just very quickly gained in intensity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This map shows the probable path of Hurricane Michael which made landfall Wednesday. The storm is expected to hit many military-heavy areas that were just struck by Hurricane Florence. Credit: Associated Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To respond, U.S. Northern Command has set in place thousands of forces, including scores of high-water vehicles and helicopters \u2014 to come to residents’ aid in the aftermath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision whether or not to evacuate was left to the base commander\u2019s discretion. However, DoD did relocate its homeland defense air operations center temporarily from Tyndall Air Force Base; the base was being hit by the storm as O\u2019Shaughnessy briefed reporters, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t