Tornado repairs at Robins will take months

Repairing the damage from a tornado that struck the base on April 1 is expected to take until the end of the year.

However, base officials said the impact on operations will be minimal.

The storm damaged the roofs of 11 buildings, causing an estimated $4.8 million in damage, but only two were damaged seriously enough to disrupt work inside those buildings.

The most extensive damage was to Building 81, where C-17 work is done. The area that was damaged held one C-17 when the storm hit, and that plane has been relocated to another building, said Bill Best, deputy director of the 402nd Aircraft Maintenance Group.

Work on that plane was delayed by about 10 days, he said, and that’s the only disruption to operations as the result of the storm. An extension was granted for the plane so the delay won’t count against the on-time delivery rate, he said.

Overall, Best said he’s happy with how the base has responded to the storm to minimize the impact. Hundreds of base employees, including office workers, came out to the flightline to pick up debris.

“It was a great team effort by the whole base to come together and resolve these issues,” he said.

A few planes suffered minor damage, he said.

The other building impacted was Building 190, where maintenance work is done on jet refueling vehicles. The roof on the front half of the building was completely torn off, and that won’t be repaired until late December.

James Pettis, chief of vehicle maintenance, said the damage to Building 190 has reduced maintenance capability by about half, and it will remain that way until the building is fixed. Some work that had been done in the building is now being done outside, but he said that will not impact flight operations.

“We are not ever going to let that happen,” he said.

Craig Williams, the refueling maintenance supervisor, said one worker was in Building 190 when the storm hit, and he retreated to the restroom, which was the building’s designated storm shelter.

“He said it sounded like people were on top of the roof beating it with sledge hammers,” Williams said.

Firefighters had to remove debris to free the worker.

Williams said until the repair is made, the shop’s work is going to get done one way or another.

“Whether we have to work in another building or work outside, that’s what we are going to do,” he said.

Building 81 suffered the most damage, estimated at $1.7 million. It is the only damaged building currently being repaired, because it was already getting a new roof when the storm hit.

Marshall Wall, chief of the Civil Engineering Division, said a modification was made to the existing contract for the new roof on Building 81 to allow the storm repair to proceed.

Had the new roof been completed before the storm hit, Wall said, it likely wouldn’t have been damaged because the new roof has a higher wind rating. When the old roof started to blow off, it damaged the finished part of new roof, which will have to be repaired as well.

That project also was the reason there was so much debris around the flightline. Most of the debris was not from buildings but was actually the construction material for the Building 81 roof project, Wall said.

Repairs have not started on the other buildings because each of those jobs has to go through the contracting process and be put out for bids.

Six buildings are expected to be repaired by early June, but Building 190 isn’t scheduled to be complete until Dec. 29. That repair is estimated to cost $1.5 million.

Additional funding has been approved for the base to make the repairs, so it won’t have to be pulled from current funding.

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Tornado repairs at Robins will take months."