129 miles per hour...that was the last wind speed recorded at Tyndall Air Force Base and the highest official on-land wind report recorded before the weather sensors were shredded as Hurricane Michael made landfall just after noon directly over the Florida Panhandle’s 325th Fighter Wing.
The sensors were not the only thing decimated as the rest of the base faced the wrath of the hurricane’s northern and western eyewall. By the time the skies finally cleared later that evening on Oct. 10, 2018, the storm had crippled the base’s infrastructure and left a trail of catastrophic damage across the local area.
When the 821st Contingency Response Group arrived on-scene at Tyndall AFB Oct. 12, 2018, to provide relief, supplies, and professionals to establish air-worthy base operations again at the beleaguered fighter base, they discovered the flight line’s crippled infrastructure no longer had sensing equipment to land aircraft in inclement weather.