Typhoon Ioke devastates Wake Island
Pastor Dale Morgan
Typhoon Ioke devastates Wake Island*
Thursday September 14, 2006 3:31 AM
By AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press Writer
HONOLULU (AP) - The Central Pacific's biggest storm in a decade damaged
70 percent of the buildings on Wake Island when it slammed ashore last
month, the U.S. Air Force said Wednesday.
Typhoon Ioke left the U.S. military research and refueling outpost
without running water, and damaged power lines and a power grid. The
buildings are being powered by generators, said Maj. Clare Reed, a
spokeswoman for the 15th Airlift Wing.
The runway made it through intact, but it is missing its lights, the Air
Force said.
On Monday, an Air Force response team that set sail by Navy ship from
Guam reached the island and cleared the runway for planes to land,
enabling a C-17 to fly to the island from Hawaii with 60 airmen and
military contractors who have started assessing what repairs the
facilities will need, Reed said.
The Category 5 storm passed almost directly over the 2.5-square mile
atoll on Aug. 31 with sustained winds of up to 155 miles per hour and
gusts of up to 190 mph. All 188 residents, mostly military contractors
and Air Force personnel, were evacuated.
Ioke was the first Category 5 storm to develop in the central Pacific
since record keeping began in the early 1960s. It was also the most
powerful storm to pass through the region since hurricanes Emilia and
Gilma, which both hit in July 1994. Wake Island lies some 2,300 miles
west of Honolulu and 1,500 miles east of Guam.