Hurricane Hunters Fly Non-Stop into Ike

  • Published
  • By Major Chad E. Gibson
  • 403rd Wing Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  As residents of the Texas coastline flee to safe havens, the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters fly right into the center of Mother Nature's fury.

Ike is projected to make landfall this weekend along the coastline of Texas near the city of Galveston as well as provide tropical storm force winds along the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines.

The Hurricane Hunters have been flying non-stop for more than three weeks into Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike.

The WC-130J, flown by the Citizen Airmen of the 403rd Wing, passes through the eye of Hurricane Ike every three hours, 24-hours-a-day, collected life-saving data that is sent directly to the National Hurricane Center located in Miami, Fla. This data increases the accuracy of the NHC forecast by 30 percent. What does this mean?

Imagine Ike's warning area expanded by 30 percent. With the warning bubble expanded by nearly a third, hundreds more communities would be forced to evacuate ahead of the storm. At a cost of one million dollars per mile of coastline to evacuate, the increased accuracy saves tens of millions of dollars on every flight. In addition, residents heed the NHC's warnings because of the Reservist-added accuracy and lives are saved.

Hurricane Ike has been slow to change in the last 24 hours, leading NHC forecasters to believe the storm will not significantly increase in strength, but by the time Ike reaches landfall on Saturday, it could near Category Three wind speeds. The additional concern is the storm surge created by Ike, already covering some low-lying roadways along the Lousiana/Mississippi coastline with water.

"If it's any threat to landfall we're going to have our Air Force Reserve C-130J aircraft in the storm collecting data.  We don't stop until the storm is no longer a threat to any coastline," said one 403rd Wing official.

No matter what the forecast, Hurricane Hunters will be there ready to gather the data needed - any time of day, all day and all night.