Jake Godin
The Politics Of Hurricanes: Why Storms Can Make Or Break A Presidency
Major storms can be devastating and the response from the White House can have lasting political consequences.
LEARN MOREPosted: 11:45 p.m. EDT Sep 14, 2018
The U.S. has evacuated the world's largest naval station to avoid potential damage from Hurricane Florence, and while civilians are going inland to get away, the Navy is going out to sea.
More than 30 ships left Naval Station Norfolk and Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia in order to avoid taking any damage from the hurricane.
The Air Force also evacuated planes from Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina ahead of the hurricane.
It's not just planes and ships that have left, either — troops and their family members on some bases are also evacuating. Those in the Norfolk area as well as bases in South and North Carolina were under mandatory or voluntary evacuations.
Despite the evacuations, the Air Force is sending planes into the hurricane to gather data, and the Navy has ships chasing closely behind to help during recovery efforts.
Evacuations for U.S. military bases ahead of storms aren't uncommon — more than 5,000 troops and their families based in Key West were evacuated in response to Hurricane Irma in 2017. The same thing happened with other bases in Florida in 2016 ahead of Hurricane Matthew.
Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina on Friday and has already caused extensive power outages and flooding. More than 7,000 active duty and National Guard service members have been mobilized to help with relief efforts.
Additional reporting from Newsy affiliate CNN.
Correction: When this video was published, Hurricane Florence had been downgraded to a tropical storm.
