Posted on 03/17/2019 12:01:29 PM PDT by US Navy Vet
Even the U.S. Air Force couldn't stop the Mighty Missouri River from flooding Offutt Air Force Base.
Between Saturday night and early Sunday, the 55th Wing called off a 30-hour, round-the-clock sandbagging effort because the floodwaters were rising too fast.
"It was a lost cause. We gave up," said Tech. Sgt. Rachelle Blake, a 55th Wing spokeswoman.
By Sunday morning, one-third of the base was underwater, she said. About 60 structures have been damaged, mostly on the south end of the base.
(Excerpt) Read more at omaha.com ...
Offutt was SAC HQ from the beginning; March 21, 1946. It is now STRATCOM. This is not the first time but the frozen ground and rapid above ground thaw with rain makes the problem bigger than in the past. Possibly reopening by mid-week. Offutt is not going anywhere and the deep state has nothing to do with the base being and staying where it is.
The HQ functions and most of the base are not directly affected. Runway is shut down because the east side of the runway is much lower than the west side. All the planes were moved to the upper end of the runway. In the near future, there will be a longer term runway shutdown to rebuild it.
LeMay, as hardheaded and forceful as he was, would not have stopped this. The quick melting made keeping up with the sand bagging impossible.
Could be the result of extensive melting snow and ice up river.
Ping
My brother used to be in command at that base (55th Wing).
Water always wins.
Good thing you have squid training .
No such thing as SAC. Hasn’t been for a long time.
Come over here, take a look at what’s washing over the base, then tell us your plan.
Don’t you just love our “Nationals” news?
There are multiple bunkers and aircraft that are vital to US security - flight line is not all that important - its all the other stuff - read the link I posted
I wasn’t being flip about the extent of the flooding as much as the attitude of the command.
There’s nothing wrong with retreat or redeploying assets to another airfield to wait out the bad weather. There’s a lot wrong with having a spokesperson for the command trotted out and say to the media “we gave up.”
After the Air Force was caught flat footed in October and had the weather ruin an airbase, losing aircraft in the process because they weren’t or couldn’t be repositioned in time. It sounds like a few more aircraft are going to be damaged because they can’t be repositioned in time. All of those things are command failings.
If a military base has a few guys get DUIs in a short time span, it’s nothing for the base command to enact collective punishment through inspections, taking away privileges and holding reinforcement training in an attempt to correct the behavior of all the people who did nothing wrong (in an attempt to keep them doing nothing wrong) . This is the second US airbase that got caught flat footed by the weather in six months. Millions of tax dollars lost and wing readiness impacted.
I actually live in Missouri—my hometown in Nebraska is the one that flooded. The water is heading down the Missouri River though, so we’ll get some flooding here, but nothing like what has happened up there. Thankfully all of the folks up there have banded together to help each other out.
My heart goes out to everyone affected.
Awful.
Yes. Really bad here. Highway 50 by me in Louisville, NE is the only usable north/south route over the Platte in this area.
My fiancee’s mother is staying with us as her town of Waterloo is cut off by flooding from the Elkhorn river. The roads were closed before she got off work. Her husband and granddaughter are trapped in town. Still safe and dry though.
My Brother’s place by the river in Plattsmouth is 1 of 3 houses that are still dry out of approx. 100 homes in his area.
There’s been numerous levee breaks, dam failures, bridges and roads taken out. It’s just a mess here!
Apparently, Nebraska has more miles of rivers than any other US state. I would never have guessed that.
Since the Strategic Air Command stood down in 1992, I can say with great confidence that Offutt is not a SAC base.
Dear Lord!!
Is the national guard out?
Federal emergency been declared?
All you guys stay safe!
As bad as Sandy was 6 or so years ago, it reached pretty far inland but not NEARLY all of Staten Island and it receded when the storm was over.
That down there is a nightmare.
I will send more prayers down that way.
1. Have they managed to sufficiently sandbag and protect the Officer’s Club?
2. How about a couple of arc light missions along the edge of the base next to the river to create craters for the flood water to go into and thus stopping the base from flooding.
3. I’ll go back to imbibing Jameson and Guiness and suspend posting operations until either the flood ends or the bottles are empty. ;)
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