Fort Eisenhower gives tour of Hurricane Helene damage
FORT EISENHOWER, Ga. (WJBF) – Fort Eisenhower is on the mend after Hurricane Helene suspended some operations.
Leaders there said housing was the most impacted area, but the medical center also suffered damage.
There is a massive pile of debris that just keeps growing as crews work to clear fallen trees.
"Good morning from Azalea Terrace, this is one of five army family communities here at Fort Eisenhower," said Garrison Commander Col. Anthony Kazor. "We have assessed one-hundred-sixteen homes [that] were damaged with some sort of degree of damage, sixteen of those are considered to have major damage which will require the relocation of those families to a new home."
"The sense of community is super strong here on Fort Eisenhower, and they were taking care of each other in the beginning through now," said Sgt. Maj. Daniel Durette, the Garrison Command Sergeant Major.
The medical center took a big hit.
"Our emphasis was on taking care of patients as we lost power and air conditioning," said Col. James Pairmore, the Commander of the Army Medical Center. "And then when we lost water, that's when we needed to evacuate the hospital for the safety of our patients."
Water was out for four days – patients were evacuated to other hospitals in the region and they returned last Thursday.
At least 90 of the 2000 rooms in the medical center sustained water damage and are under repair.
"While the challenges were hard, we met them. But, like any event we do after-action reviews and we look at things that went really well and things that we can improve on, and so we're taking those little tidbits and what the staff went though to make sure things are better," said Dr. Troy Akers, the Chief Medical Officer at the Army Medical Center at Fort Eisenhower.
"Pulling up to the hospital, walking up to the front door entrance, just seeing the projector everything, the walls falling down, water on the floor, it was very hard to take in," said Ssgt. Shaniyah Boston, who does Patient Administrations at the Army Medical Center.
But Fort Eisenhower leaders are proud of how the military community – and the CSRA as a whole – came together.
"I think all of us those, those of us one the installation and those of us throughout the community woke up to something we didn't expect, and then the hard work began," said Maj. Gen. Ryan Janovic, the Commanding General of the Cyber Center of Excellence.
There isn't a timeline for when those homes or the medical center rooms will be repaired, and some services still aren't back up yet – but they're working hard to get things back to normal.
