An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Homestead Air Reserve Base cleans up, sends relief

  • Published
  • By Jake Shaw
  • 482nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. --  The 482nd Fighter Wing is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Florida Army National Guard, and local officials here to send relief supplies to south Florida residents.

According to FEMA officials, tractor trailers began pre-positioning supplies at Homestead ARB Thursday in preparation for Hurricane Wilma. The supplies include ice, water, Meals Ready to Eat and tarps to be used as temporary roofs.

Over 200 tractor trailers were ready to go by Sunday, just hours before Hurricane Wilma made landfall on the southwestern coast of Florida.

Less than 24 hours after the hurricane passed by, relief trucks began shipping supplies to areas across south Florida. The relief trucks are sent to Points of Distribution, where the Army National Guard is passing out the supplies to citizens in need. According to FEMA, 104 trucks of supplies were sent out on Tuesday, and deliveries are continuing today.

Many of the PODs are co-located with American Red Cross centers that provide hot meals to citizens, many of whom have not seen a hot meal in 48 hours or more.
There are currently four PODs in the Florida Keys, between Key Largo and Key West, and there are an additional 16 PODs in Miami-Dade County, which includes Homestead, said Army Capt. Sarah McLevy, Support Operations Officer for the 927th Corps Support Battalion.

McLevy is coordinating the Florida Army National Guard’s relief efforts, with the assistance of about 200 Army guardsmen from northern Florida.

Homestead ARB has been used as a FEMA relief staging area consistently for the past two years. Each time a hurricane threatens south Florida, FEMA pre-positions supplies here.

Homestead ARB is a great location for FEMA’s relief operations because we have an airfield, as well as the facilities and support infrastructure necessary to run a successful operation, said Col. Randy Falcon, 482nd Fighter Commander.

“From Homestead, we can transport supplies in multiple directions, and if land transportation is unavailable we can support heavy airlift helicopters and fixed wing aircraft,” said Falcon.

So far, helicopters have been flying missions in and out of Homestead ARB to survey the damages to the north and south of the base, and they’ve also flown medical supplies to areas in the Florida Keys, said Falcon.

“We received moderate wind damage and isolated water damage at the base, with four facilities having major roof damage and seven facilities suffering minor roof damage,” said Falcon.

The base lost a lot of trees and has scattered debris, but the wing is operational, even without electricity at the majority of the base, he said.

According to Falcon, the airfield at Homestead ARB was re-opened only a few hours after the hurricane passed by.

“At 4 p.m. on Monday the airfield was open for rotary wing aircraft, and it was ready for fixed wing aircraft by 5:30 p.m.,” Falcon said.

The airfield will be used to receive relief supplies by air if necessary, but for now, most supplies are being shipped by tractor trailers, requiring a lot of fuel.

In fact, it has taken 14,000 gallons of diesel and over 3,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline over a five-day period, according to Don McNeal, 482nd Fighter Wing Fuels Superintendent.

“We’re slowly getting to a level that’s manageable, where we can handle the demand,” said McNeal. Besides servicing over 200 tractor trailers day and night, the 482nd Fuels personnel have refueled over 30 aircraft -- mainly helicopters -- and they’ve serviced 25 generators on base twice a day.

The coordination between all the agencies here has been heroic, said Col. Falcon. From the Miami-Dade County mayor’s office, to the state and federal agencies, including the military units, this has been a team effort. The base took a hard hit from Wilma, but we’re fully operational, and the 482nd Fighter Wing is cleaning up and sending relief to the surrounding communities.