TAMPA, Fla. – The state of Florida was absolutely ravaged last year with three hurricane landfalls. Debby came ashore in early August followed by major hurricanes Helene and Milton in almost rapid succession.
It goes without saying, the 2024 season left its mark on us all. Between protecting lives and property to safeguarding our way of life here in Central Florida, local and state officials have been feverishly working round-the-clock to prepare for what’s ahead as we inch closer to the 2025 hurricane season.
But there’s another enormous piece to the preparation puzzle we do not want to go unsung.
Here’s a glimpse into how the Air Force gears up its personnel and local communities to stay prepared and protected during hurricane season.
I had the wonderful opportunity to revisit my roots as an Air Force weather forecaster and backseat an abbreviated shift with the MacDill AFB weather team. I was also given a tour of what their base operations building looks like post-Milton.
It was very unfortunate to see a combination of storm surge flooding and hurricane force winds left their building in shambles, requiring work even today to get it back up to where it once was.
I did a full walkthrough of the base ops facility, and spoke with a few of the personnel who operate there consistently for their testimonies surrounding Hurricane Milton. It really opened my eyes, to not only the level of preparation that must be executed before a disaster of this magnitude, but also why it’s so important to TRAIN for a hurricane season.
One of those testimonies came from Airman Tessa Bradley, who was one of the Squadron Aviation Resource Management team members who had to prepare the office for impact before evacuating herself and her family.
“I am a resident of MacDill. I have two children, I live on base housing. I remember last year, Milton, we did get a notification that it was time to move and leave the base, evacuate,” she said. “And I just remember it being so stressful, like even though we had the resources available, we had a plan, it was terrifying to come back to. What would it look like?”
This is a harrowing reminder, even the 1% of the population that make up the brave men and women of our armed forces face the same tribulations we do as Central Floridians when hurricane season comes hurdling our way.
Bradley went on to say she asked herself multiple painful questions before it was all over: “Will my house still be there? Is the roof gone, will my kids still have a home?”
Understanding the risks before, during and after the storm are crucial for everyone in harm’s way. That’s why the Air Force trains year-round to prepare for these types of events to keep their people safe and ready.
“The majority of our job here as weather forecasters is to protect our assets, such as the aircraft and the people who work on them and on them,” said Senior Airman Johnson of the MacDill weather flight
I sat down with Johnson, a forecaster who’s been doing the job for several months now.
“We have to do our best to give the best picture of when we’re going to get significant weather, when we’re going to have to have people stay indoors when they can’t be out on the island doing their work,” Johnson said.
Preparation has always been key for the U.S. Air Force. I can whole-heartedly testify to this as one of their own. Training was pivotal, 365 days of a calendar year. If you weren’t dealing with a real-world event, you’d better be spending your time training for that event.
Johnson went on to describe his recollection of the hurricanes that directly played a role in MacDill’s weather.
“So we were still dealing with leftovers from Helene,” he said. “The water was still up everywhere.”
Helene and Milton impacted Florida in rapid succession last year, giving Floridians virtually no time to breathe.
“There was a lot of water in the area, just like, one street to my west, from my house. So I was having to fight with people that are still buying supplies to recover, to try and prepare my house,” he said.
He went on to mention the last-minute preps and recovery going on simultaneously between both hurricanes.
Technical Sgt. Kenneth Sallet, a non-commissioned officer in charge at the weather flight during their day operations, gave me the low-down on the products they build and consistently train on to brief not only ground personnel but base wide leadership.
“So when we came back, we had no cell service and our teams were relying on sat coms and handheld communications to get across base.” Sallet explained how activities after the storm, including repairs and rescue operations, were primarily coordinated through radios.
The weather flight was tasked with providing crucial information surrounding potential issues teams could run into all thanks to a geomagnetic storm happening at the same time.
“It was our job to inform them that you could see some degradation across the base with this information. So just be aware of that as you’re coming back for recovery operations,” he explained.
The green, yellow and red colors are a part of what’s called a stoplight chart. Just like you’d see on the roads, Air Force weather teams provide these graphics to troops they support to point out green means go and red means stop. Simple but effective communication is key when faced with dangerous weather scenarios.
Finally, alongside their own in-house model, the Air Force has started fully implementing a one-stop forecast shop for personnel to use when coordinating weather information to those needing it at critical points throughout the mission. A program called Bi-Frost has just gone fully online.
“So can you add specific layers to bi-frost as part of the analysis and forecast process?” I asked Johnson, as he gave me a tour of the new program.
“Yeah, so the way that they’re trying to do it is have like one that would be all encompassing. So, I can do anything that all of our maps and graphics before did but all in one place,” Johnson said.
On top of combining model data into one overlay, this also helps expedite the communication piece when relaying watches, warnings, and advisories to folks working outdoors and especially base command leadership.
To help with the communication piece, the Air Force designates their own news and public affairs team. It was actually through 2nd Lt. Ericka McCammon that I was given this opportunity to work with the weather squadron on base. She had a few key pointers to share of her own.
“A big part of my job as a public affairs officer is to communicate not only with people on base but also with the local community and to build and strengthen those relationships,” she said, further reinforcing how critical training and communication are before disaster strikes.
The two most important pieces I’ve taken from each of the conferences, events, seminars and workshops I’ve attended leading up to now have been training and communication. While training may look different for each of you out there, it’s important to recognize the role it plays in keeping you all safe.
Communication is the backbone to all that we do on a day-to-day. Have you dialed in your preparations and communicated what is done and what still needs doing?
Check out ClickOrlando.com/Hurricane to prepare for all things hurricane season.