NAS-P officials meet for storm preps

NAS PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - Officials aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola are meeting Thursday afternoon on base to discuss plans for possible tropical weather evacuations.

"Assess Adapt Attack” adorns the wall at a hangar in the VT-10 squadron at NAS.

It’s a fitting mantra for combat, as one must learn his or her situation and enemy before heading into battle, even if that fight is with Mother Nature.

With the intentions of Tropical Storm Isaac still very much a mystery, base officials are planning ahead.

“What we’re doing now is putting all the plans in place so that we can move out in a very, very orderly fashion and not be waiting until the last minute to try to execute in a panic," said NAS public affairs officer Harry White.  “Safety is the primary concern.  We need to figure out what we’re going to do, when we need to do it, so we can get out people out of here in advance of any storm.”

Should Isaac head thisway, White said NAS could move its 4,600 students to a Marine Corps logistics base in Georgia. 

Folks living in the nearly 350 installments of base housing will also be evacuated.

People obviously come first, but that still leaves another important NAS asset, aircraft.

White said Aviation Protection Equipment (APE) protect planes from day to day weather, but certainly nothing as bad as a hurricane.  And with more than one hundred planes on base, NAS would never risk leaving them there. 

So, some jets will be put in hangars, others flown to different bases across the country not in Isaac’s path.

White said the base can’t really make solid decisions until it has a more information on what the weather system is going to do.

“As I said to someone earlier (Thursday), we’re ready but we’re not prepared," White said.  "Before the week is over, we’re going to be prepared as well as ready, and that’s where we have to be. We have to do this on a daily basis.”

The base commander is holding another hurricane preparedness meeting Friday, August 24 at 2 p.m.