Tyndall AFB, Panama City Beach and Mexico Beach brace for Helene

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Bill Waddell talks about how Tyndall AFB, Panama City Beach and Mexico Beach are rebuilding stronger after Hurricane Michael's 2018, aiming for resilience against future storms like Helene.

Transcript

00:00Now one place where you can still see a lot of scars and a lot of memories from Hurricane Michael

00:06is over at Tyndall Air Force Base between Panama City Beach and Mexico Beach.

00:10They are rebuilding to be stronger and more resilient after that Category 5

00:14hurricane destroyed hundreds of hangars and facilities back in 2018.

00:20So we built the construction to go along with a lot of that whether it's the windows or just

00:26the physical steel and reinforced concrete construction to withstand some of these larger

00:30storms. So most of our facilities are either that 165, 175 range as far as wind speeds.

00:37So yeah a lot of our construction that we're doing now is going to be much more resilient

00:40to these storms and provide a lot more safety for the folks here on Tyndall Air Force Base.

00:47Looking back at this video from 2018 brings back a lot of heartache for people here along the Gulf

00:52Coast. There has been a lot of progress since Michael. Millions of dollars in investments poured

00:57in but there is still a lot of work to be done. And the five billion dollar rebuild project at

01:02Tyndall should be complete by next summer. Helene of course is expected to delay some of the

01:08construction work but officials there at Tyndall Air Force Base are hoping that it will be temporary

01:13that they won't be dealing with substantial damage but again they could be dealing with

01:18more setbacks. And Ari I threw on the jacket I know it looks pretty here from this angle we've

01:23got the sun coming through the clouds but here in Apalachicola we have some storms popping up to my

01:28uh to my other side. I'm actually hearing a rumbles of thunder just check the radar and

01:33that's one of the things people are going to be dealing with here along the Gulf Coast. There's

01:36sandbag distributions. This is the time that people are going to be boarding up, getting prepared,

01:42getting ready for the storm and here in Apalachicola we're going to be dealing with

01:45some rain and some storms here in a little bit. Yeah even out ahead of the main impacts from

01:50Helene. Yes some very attention to detail. Bill I saw that you threw on the jacket but just

01:54excellent information and all the angles you're able to cover for us there

01:57being in Apalachicola. So we appreciate you reporting live for us.

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