US MILITARY GETS SET FOR ARRIVAL OF FLORENCE

▶ Troops are dispersed, ships sent to safer waters and aircraft head inland as hurricane nears east coast bases

The US Navy is moving people and ships before Hurricane Florence hits and the air force and army are flying advanced aircraft elsewhere as a precaution, while remaining marines are digging in their heels.

Florence is on course for a region with some of the bestknown military bases in the US, including Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island in South Carolina.

While thousands of marines and their families have left Camp Lejeune, the commanding general said on Tuesday that anyone remaining at the base would have food, water and protection despite being in the projected path of the storm.

“Since 1941, this base and its marines have been trained to deal with crises at home and abroad and Hurricane Florence is no exception,” said Brig Gen Julian D Alford.

Some military families and others took to Camp Lejeune’s Facebook page, telling of their fears and asking why there was no mandatory evacuation.

Non-essential personnel were released from duty at Lejeune and told they were free to move with their families to a site within an 800-kilometre radius of Jacksonville.

Nat Fahy, a spokesman for the command, said the base was the safest place for anyone who had not left. Mr Fahy said shelters on the base were expected to open early yesterday and there would be full resources for those there.

Of the estimated 40,000 active duty troops at Lejeune, about three quarters live off the base. Mr Fahy did not know yet how many remained.

Recruits were set to leave the Marine Corps’ largest training installation on the East Coast on Tuesday, but those plans changed after South Carolina’s governor rescinded an evacuation order as the storm’s projected path shifted north.

Some non-essential personnel and families moved but most of the more than 8,000 marines and support staff at Parris Island remain.

At Fort Bragg, an inland army base in North Carolina, officials said most of the 82nd Airborne Division’s helicopter fleet was being dispersed to one of two sites in Georgia.

In Virginia, Navy officials on Tuesday issued an emergency evacuation order for active duty and civilian personnel, their families and reservists living in certain coastal areas for which the state had also ordered an evacuation. The move came after the navy sent dozens of its Virginia-based ships to sea a day earlier.

According to the navy, the final two ships – the hospital ship USNS Comfort and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln – left Norfolk on Tuesday.

More than 30 ships have now moved to safer waters in the Atlantic Ocean.

The US Air Force and Air National Guard also moved jets from Virginia’s coast to Ohio.

Officials from Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton said the base’s F-22 Raptors and T-38 Talon training jets would begin flying out on Tuesday for Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Ohio.

About 100 support personnel were also to travel there.