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'It Will Be Years' Before Life At Tyndall Air Force Base Returns To Normal

Tyndall Air Force base, home to 11,000 airmen and their families, sustained catastrophic damage when Hurricane Michael came through earlier this month. Residents don't know if they will ever go back.
Robert Hill surveys the damage within his living room on Wednesday at Tyndall Air Force Base after Hurricane Michael hit the base last week. Support personnel from Tyndall and other bases were on location to support Airmen returning to their homes to assess damage and collect personal belongings.

Swimming in St. Andrew Bay was the first thing Jillian Arrowood wanted to do when she moved into her new home on Tyndall Air Force base on October 8. She and her two daughters had just joined her husband William, her son, and her father-in-law, an Army retiree who had recently had a stroke, in their new home by the water.

Her 12-year old daughter didn't have a bathing suit, but was so excited that she jumped in the water with her clothes on. It felt like a perfect day: 85 degrees, sunny, and slightly breezy. There was no indication of the bad weather that was headed their way.

Just as the sun was setting, a nearby airman who had been fishing told them that Tyndall received evacuation orders. Less than six hours after Jillian and her daughters arrived on base, the Arrowood family was packing up to leave, and haven't been back since.

They are one of hundreds of military families that have been

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