Disaster Preparedness Exercise Week

Hurricane season is approaching and the Gulfport Seabee Base is doing their disaster exercises that reaches region wide from Corpus Christi, Texas to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Time is ticking as the days draw closer to hurricane season. The Seabee Base in Gulfport is busy with activity as Seabees carry out their annual Natural Disaster Exercises, analyzing storms along the Coast, ready to respond when and if a natural disaster strikes. Executive Officer Commander Ronald Jenkins said, “We’re exercising our ability to react not only to our folks, but to the local community while at the same time telling our folks to be prepared for the hurricane season.”
Hurricane Exercise Citadel Gale 2017 involves two simulated storm systems developing and intensifying to strength, threatening the Gulf Coast and East Coast regions. This is something Seabees and Housing Director Charles Taylor are all too familiar with, considering they were here during Hurricane Katrina. “When we went through that, it was scary. No doubt about that. When you’re use to seeing what you see on a daily basis and then seeing what you see after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, it was scary.”
After experiencing one of the most devastating storms on the Gulf Coast, Taylor explains Katrina has broadened their experience and has better prepared them for future storms. “We are actually better prepared because of what we did and the things that transpired during Hurricane Katrina that perhaps we weren’t as well prepared as we would like to have been. With those lessons, we are now able to say this is something that could possibly happen and we know that to be a fact because we’ve lived it before.”
The disaster preparedness exercise will end May 13th.