Last of 2,300 hurricane evacuees depart Fort Chaffee

By ArkansasOnline

FORT CHAFFEE — One week after seeking refuge from Hurricane Gustav, the final 200 citizens of Louisiana temporarily housed at Fort Chaffee boarded buses and departed for home.

The buses delivered the evacuees to the Fort Smith Regional Airport where three FEMA contracted flights were arranged to provide the next leg home to Louisiana. The final flight out departed Fort Smith at about 7 p.m. Sunday.

The first wave of people returning home from Chaffee began Friday night as 16 buses rolled out the front gate of the National Guard training site carrying more than 800 individuals and a small number of pets. It took 10 more buses and 7 aircraft to move about 1,300 more the next day.

The Sebastian County and Arkansas Departments of Emergency Management worked tirelessly to coordinate the outbound transportation with FEMA as over 200 Arkansas Guardsmen worked to support sustainment operations on post. Along

with Fort Chaffee personnel, the Guard support consisted of members of the Arkansas Army National Guard's 142nd Fires Brigade, and the Arkansas Air National Guard's 188th Fighter Wing, both with units in Fort Smith.

The post is now working to clean up the mess left behind and prepare for possible evacuees from Hurricane Ike.

Fort Chaffee processed more than 10,000 people affected by Hurricane Katrina after it hit the Gulf Coast three years ago. Today, in a proactive measure drawn from the lessons learned from Katrina, Arkansas and Louisiana currently operate under a memorandum of agreement for Fort Chaffee to provide such emergency shelter before storms during hurricane season.

The Arkansas National Guard continues to have another 40 Soldiers and Airmen supporting Louisiana under another hurricane season agreement.

Camp Robinson's 114th Security and Support of the 77th Aviation Brigade is providing airspace management and command and control of all aviation assets supporting the relief effort. The soldiers are located in Baton Rouge along with four members of the Arkansas Air National Guard's 154th Weather Flight from the Little Rock Air Force Base. The 154th is supporting the 114th's mission by providing weather briefings and forecasts on site.

For more information see Monday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.