Hurricane Dorian is expected to impact Hampton Roads as early as Friday and some military installations are preparing to evacuate aircraft and ships just in case.

Hampton

“As a precautionary measure, we are relocating our F-22s and T-38s to a location outside of Dorian’s projected path,” Col. David Lopez, 1st Fighter Wing commander, said in a news release. “We are coordinating with our Team Langley Mission Partners to send the appropriate aircrew, maintenance, and support personnel in order to ensure the safety and security of our aircraft.”

Lopez said the raptors will evacuate to Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Ohio Tuesday and are scheduled to arrive by Wednesday afternoon.

“We have been preparing throughout the holiday weekend with our partner agencies to help mitigate the effects of Hurricane Dorian on JBLE,” said Col. Clinton A. Ross, 633rd Air Base Wing commander. “Our mission is to provide support for the operational units assigned here, which includes the fighter and intelligence wings at Langley, and multiple brigades at Ft Eustis.”

“Our civil engineer and emergency management teams are already executing protective measures to secure our infrastructure from the approaching storm,” Ross added. “Thank you for your patience as we continue to monitor the storm to make the best decisions possible in the coming days.”

Norfolk

At Norfolk Naval Base, all Navy ships and aircraft in the Hampton Roads area are prepared to evacuate within 24 hours, according to the Navy’s news release.

“We will continue to monitor and track the storm to ensure our ships and personnel are prepared,” Vice Adm. Andrew L. Lewis said in a news release. “If necessary, we will sortie our ships to allow enough time to transit safely out of the path of the storm.”

Some ships will not be able to leave because of various maintenance availabilities and commanding officers have multiple options depending on the severity of the weather including adding additional mooring and storm lines, dropping the anchor and disconnecting shore power cables, according to the news release.

The Navy is prepared to deal with winds greater than 50 knots within 48 hours part of the installations readiness plans, Rear Adm. Charles W. Rock, commander of the Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, said in a news release.

In addition, the Navy installations can prepare for the weather by sandbagging, removing hazards from drainage areas, large items from waterfront areas, fueling up emergency generators and vehicles and preparing portable water supplies.

Sortie Conditions

• Charlie: Ships must be prepared to get underway within 48 hours.
• Bravo: Ships must be prepared to get underway within 24 hours.
• Alpha: Indicates the execution of the sortie.

Tropical Cyclone Conditions

• Condition IV: Trend indicates possible destructive winds within 72 hours.
• Condition III: Destructive winds are possible within 48 hours.
• Condition II: Destructive winds are possible within 24 hours.
• Condition I: Destructive winds are possible within 12 hours.

Families are advised to visit their Navy Family Accountability and Assessment System account, review hurricane checklists. Personnel should discuss evacuation plans with their chain of command. For more information about Hurricane Dorian, visit the Ready Navy website and follow their twitter page.

For more information, visit the Commander Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Facebook page for hurricane updates or their twitter.

For the current status of JBLE, visit the JBLE Facebook page or follow the JBLE Twitter accounts at @JBLENews and @JBLEStatus.