NPC/Millington Suffers Major (Catastrophic) Flood Damage

[CUPike11]

I know we can't do much due to distance, but if there is anything any of you guys need that we could help out with, please let us know....well, let me know. I can't speak for everyone else, but I'd imagine that most would help if someone asked.

 

[Morgan81]

Bevo / Steve : Thanks for the updates, I hope I can assume that you guys are ok and the bad areas avoid you.

For you guys or anyone else more familiar with the orders process then I am; if we are (were) expecting orders this week, is there anyplace that can answer specific questions about what we should do?

 

[FrankTheTank]

I was referring to the picture posted by Gritty.. In the other Pic. I agree!

Ya went driving around... Sledge road looked horrible (back way to Navy rd).. Checked on the horses.. 1 and 1/2 pastures under water but barns were dry.. Wife has a bunch of friends that got flooded back behind Los Pilares..

How did Joe Duggar fair out? I mostly workout here at ATC but head up there every now and then to break the monotony. Also when I get to the gym late so I can lift with a former neighbor and squadron mate...

I think you are off by a few degrees. Whitten is on the right side of the picture, the NEX is across the street with the black roof.

I had to look at it a few times to get it figured out. I am not used to the base looking like Atlantis.



I saw it from the 385 overpass Saturday about 7:00 on my way in Saturday afternoon. I live in Eads, down where 385 crosses HWY 64, so I pass it every day. I could not believe how high the river still was today. Did you head up that way today?

I tried to make use of my membership at Memphis Shooting Sports in Lakeland, but the range was a lake itself. It's going to take them a while to get it back in service.

It sounded promising that we would be back in business by mid-week, but it sounds like things are still going to be closed tomorrow.

 

[Steve Shedd]

Bevo / Steve : Thanks for the updates, I hope I can assume that you guys are ok and the bad areas avoid you.

For you guys or anyone else more familiar with the orders process then I am; if we are (were) expecting orders this week, is there anyplace that can answer specific questions about what we should do?

Morgan81,

If you can, wait another day or so and PERS-43 should be able to support limited ops with non-NMCI e-mails or some other form of comms. If you are actually detaching very soon and you are approaching extremes, you can call the NPC help desk at 1-866-U-ASK-NPC. Normally, the help desk is geared towards enlisted detailing questions, but right now it's a good resource for anyone. If you call right now, though, you will get recording with the NPC Duty Desk phone number. Feel free to call that as well.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Steve Shedd]

You can find the below text posted on the Navy Detailers facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/NavyPersonnelCommand/

From the Head Detailer to the Fleet, 04 May 2010:

As most of you have heard by now, NSA Mid-South suffered extensive flooding over the weekend resulting from swollen creeks to the South of the base that overtopped the base levies. The level of flooding varied. Some NSA Mid-South family housing saw 3-4 feet of flooding and other NPC buildings received varying amounts of water damage. More than 330 Navy families who were living on base were displaced and we are busy taking care of our NPC and NRC families. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but numerous families lost all their possessions.

Navy Personnel Command is still in the assessment/recovery phase today and we are executing portions of our Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP). Here’s a status report:

- Damage to NPC buildings is still being assessed.
- Local servers for BOL, NPC NMCI and NPC website have been powered down due to the flooding and damage assessment is in progress. Restoration estimates are still TBD.
- Enlisted detailers are on the 2nd deck of the Whitten Building and were not affected by water damage. However, many enlisted detailers were affected by flooding in base housing. These Sailors have personal and family issues to manage and will not be available to perform detailing duties for some time.
- Officer detailers, Placement Officers and Distribution Management Personnel are on the 1st deck of the Whitten building. The vast majority of the computers and external hard drives on the 1st deck were removed from floors by duty personnel and are undamaged. This means your Detailer or Placement Officer likely has all of your e-mail correspondence intact and safe.
- Once the damage assessment is complete, we will be able to determine when NPC will be able to resume limited operations and eventually full operations. As soon as this is known, I will provide an update to this post.
- If you do not have PCS orders in-hand, DO NOT TRANSFER!
- If you have an emergent situation that requires NPC action, dial 1-866-U-ASK-NPC.

The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society is on-site and assisting those families most impacted by the flood. Their website – https://www.nmcrs.org/ - has information for those wishing to help flood victims. Any contributions would be timely and greatly appreciated by our Navy families affected by this disaster. Please pass the word.

I will provide updates as information becomes available. We are committed to taking care of our families and restoring services to the Fleet as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!

RDML Shoemaker
PERS-4

 

[D_Rob]

Any update on the clean up and when you guys/gals will be back in business?

 

[Bevo16]

The word late Friday was that e-mail would be up as early as Tuesday, and no later than Wednesday. It also sounds like a nation-wide NMCI crash took place Friday afternoon, and we don't know if that is going to impact the recovery efforts in Millington.

I can't do my job without e-mail, plain and simple (and sad). There are also a ton of other systems and data-bases that are central to the detailing business that are not yet operational. From where I sit, this is the list of problems (in no particular order):

1. Navy housing and the town of Millington took a serious hit. The officers and sailors who write the orders are trying to find a safe/dry place for their family and recover their normal lives. They are not going to be writing a lot of orders right now.
2. Most buildings took water on the 1st deck. Hundreds of computers and everything on them are lost.
3. Since a good deal of the flood water was sewage, all water damage had to be considered sewage contaminated and had to be destroyed. We threw a LOT of records away (the mountain of shit to be shredded was really impressive), and we didn't have time to really even inventory what went in the trash. It's just gone.
4. NMCI is still down, and may not be up until Tuesday or Wednesday. Most of us can't do our jobs without e-mail and internet. All of my programs and my primary data-base are web based, so we literally can't work without e-mail and internet. I will be back in business when that functionality is back, but I move bodies and hand out money. The PERS folks who move live sailors require several other systems and data-bases that are still down hard.

Sooooo.....

Admiral Shoemaker made it really clear...if you don't have orders, sit tight. You are not moving. I don't know how long it is going to take to get everything back up to speed, but my guess is that the ripple effect is going to be felt for a good while. This is not the time to try to call if you are 6 months out. Your detailer is probably not even allowed in his spaces, has no access to his phone, computer, files, or anything. Just wait. Oh, and don't hurt/kill yourself now either. Navy Casualty is on life support (that's a joke, but it's true).

Edit:

When we say "we threw a lot of records away", I am not talking about service records. From what I hear, no service records were lost. My office threw away burial at sea records, death certificates, old congressional responses, line of duty investigations, death certificates, funeral bills, etc, etc. Anything with PII that was even humid got tossed.

 

[HeyJoe]

Any update on the clean up?

Ongoing...

100506-N-5319A-003 MILLINGTON, Tenn. (May 6, 2010) Personnel assigned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations at Naval Support Activity Mid-South remove office supplies and personal items during flood recovery operations. The base was closed to residents and non-mission essential personnel after two days of rain dumped more than 14 inches in the area May 1 and 2, causing severe flooding on parts of the base. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brien Aho/Released)

 

[HeyJoe]

Sucks!!! Was wondering why BOL is not working...

I was wondering why NMCI was inop Friday...wonder if their foibles influenced the massive NMCI outage the one day I needed it. Interesting that Facebook ame to rescue for PERS folks.

100505-N-0659H-001 MILLINGTON, Tenn. (May 5, 2010) Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Jarrod Snell, assigned to Navy Personnel Command, carries damaged computers from his work center during flood recovery operations at Naval Support Activity Mid-South. The base was closed to residents and non-mission essential personnel after two days of rain dumped more than 14 inches in the area May 1 and 2, causing severe flooding on parts of the base. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class LaTunya Howard/Released)