Airmen at Kadena AB, Japan, on the island of Okinawa have been prepping the base and its aircraft for the first typhoon of the year, scheduled to hit the island this morning. Facing potential winds of 125 knots from Typhoon Man-Yi, Maj. Dani Johnson reports that the base began moving fighters and helicopters into shelters and sent larger aircraft—KC-135s, RC-135s, MC-130s, E-3 AWACS, and Navy P-3s—off to Andersen AFB, Guam. The Okinawa facility escaped severe storms last year, but weather officer Capt. Jonathan Wilson says that if this typhoon “moves even slightly in a westward direction, we will have a much more serious storm.”
In the wake of an intense storm, Alaska Air National Guard Airmen evacuated more than 500 residents by C-17 Globemaster III Aircraft this week as heavy storm surges flooded villages in the region.
