USS JFK Carrier Project in RI

The Project Vision

Mission Statement  • Project Description: Broad Appeal  •   Education  • Community Benefits  • Disaster Relief  •
Why We Will Succeed

 

Project Description: Disaster Relief Potential for the USS John F. Kennedy

In addition to the benefits of job creation, economic impact, tax generation, vocational training and quality of life benefits, we must still remember this is a post-9/11 world. Issues of homeland security and emergency management play a far greater role in our lives in 2010  than they did in 2000.  This fact was brought home very forcefully by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi, and closer to home with our very recent Rhode Island floods.

We have all seen what happens when municipal and state capabilities are overwhelmed, and federal response is delayed.

The events in New Orleans, hopefully, have motivated federal, state and local authorities to reassess their current disaster response strategies. Here in Rhode Island, I am sure everyone is concerned about our own fate should the unthinkable happen. People might feel more comfortable if they knew an opportunity to greatly increase our preparedness is easily within reach.

Had USS JFK been permanently moored in Narragansett Bay during the recent floods she would have been able to accomplish the following:

1) Provide a stable landing platform for the largest helicopters in our military and civilian fleets, offering a close-in, secure flight deck for emergency evacuation;

2) Service and refuel the helicopters, as well as provide a staging platform for relief and emergency crews;

3) Provide immediate, on-site access to huge supplies of fresh water, non-perishable foods and medical supplies;

4) Offer up to 5000 beds or cots for casualties, along with a fully functioning surgery, medical and dental facilities;

5) Using her three 1000KW generators, provide emergency power to hospitals and other essential facilities ashore (subject to compatibility with the electrical grid);

6) Accommodate up to ten thousand additional uninjured evacuees in her 75,000 sq ft hangar bays and adjacent areas;

7) Provide a close-to-the-scene command and emergency operations center with fully functioning communications equipment;

8) Because she is designed as a warship, guarantee a "safe haven" to evacuees and rescue workers alike, while still offering a unique combination of land, sea and air access;

9) Offer a secure, clean and dry facility for rescue crews to eat, rest and resupply.

JFK can be on site the day the next emergency starts. Because the ship would have been moored to withstand the 100-year storm, she would not be seriously affected by the strongest hurricane on record for this area. EMA officials would have enough notice to station appropriate staff aboard before the storm hit, and they would be immediately available to deal with the crisis as soon as the worst weather had passed.

In the Katrina situation, the Navy sent the carrier USS Harry S. Truman from Norfolk, but it did not arrive until one week after the storm hit. The 131-bed emergency medical hospital sent from North Carolina was still 70 miles away from where it is needed seven days after the storm abated.

If runways and roads at Quonset were flooded or otherwise inaccessible, you would still have easy air access to the on-site command center and emergency hospital via JFK's 4.5 acre flight deck, which is some 70 feet above sea level. That should be a very lasting and comforting thought.

And, while these comments have been primarily focused on the hurricane example, JFK would be a real public asset in preparing for any kind of an emergency, whether natural or man-made. The ship offers unmatched capabilities as an ongoing and permanent training facility, both classroom and practical. Confined space rescue, shipboard fire and underwater salvage all come to mind.

The storage capabilities on board are more than 370,000 cubic feet: the equivalent of a six-story warehouse occupying an entire New York City block.

Depending on how quickly JFK can be brought on line, the ship could also be considered as a cost-effective and secure site for an Alternate Emergency Operations Center and 911 backup facility.

New York has already seen the potential for the use of an aircraft carrier as an emergency management asset. In the FY 2005 budget Congress appropriated $31 million for turning the USS Intrepid -- the WWII aircraft carrier turned historic landmark and museum in New York City -- into a command center for government agencies in the event of terrorist attacks and/or natural disasters.