Base sustains water damage from May rains Published June 12, 2015 By Kimberly Woodruff Staff Writer TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- "The rain was of biblical proportions," said Robert Whittington, community manager for Balfour Beatty Communities at Tinker Family Housing. With no time to build an ark, Tinker residents had to hunker down and hope for the best as waters continued to rise May 6 during a heavy downpour. Tinker saw 4.72 inches of rain that day. May 23 had another heavy downpour. According to the 72nd Operations Support Squadron's Weather Flight, Tinker received 15.63 inches of rain during May. "We didn't break our record at Tinker," said Capt. Casey Neuville, wing weather officer with the Weather Flight. "Our records indicate 18.80 inches is our all-time mark for May." The captain said locations just west, southwest and south of base received even more rain, about 23.5 inches in and around Norman. Oklahoma City totals measured 19.48 inches for the month, breaking the old mark of 14.66 inches in June 1989. With much heavier rain than is normal for this time of year in Oklahoma, the rising water at Tinker caused everything from leaking windows and roofs to completely flooding the chapel's Religious Education building. Base housing fared pretty well, considering the amount of water rushing through. Mr. Whittington said out of 660 homes on base, only four experienced water intrusion. "That's less than 1 percent," he said. "The engineers really got it right when they designed the housing area. They designed it above the code for the 50-year flood." A "50-year flood" occurs when water overflows the natural or artificial banks of a waterway. There is a 2 percent chance of one occurring in any given year. The four houses that sustained water damage were older homes, built between 1972 and 1978. Water reached the living area in only one of the homes. In the others, the water stayed in the garage area. One of the more heavily damaged buildings on base was the chapel's R.E. Building. It flooded when a nearby creek overflowed its banks and the storm drain couldn't handle the amount of water coming in. Tech. Sgt. Lisa Cacao, a member of the 72nd Air Base Wing Chapel staff, said when she arrived on the scene, the water was about 4 inches deep throughout the building. Carpets had to be taken up and the drywall/insulation that had soaked up water had to be removed. Thanks to the help of more than 80 volunteers, salvageable furnishings were quickly moved into temporary storage to prevent further damage. Some items such as sofas and televisions were destroyed by the water. Recovery actions are anticipated to take several months. "The flood created a dynamic series of events requiring spiritual resiliency -- from volunteers rushing to help us move items out of the damaged facility to re-grouping all of our events and four contractors into the main chapel building," said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Sammy Tucker, 72nd Air Base Wing chaplain. Oklahoma certainly sees its share of natural disasters, and one thing is common, people come out to help one another. Mr. Whittington gave credit to the Balfour Beatty Communities staff who actively checked on the safety and security of the residents in the community. The team issued a community-wide alert asking all residents to notify the community management office of any issues resulting from the heavy rains so they could be addressed immediately. A second alert was sent the day after the rains to warn parents to keep their children away from the flooded creek. "Everyone did really well and, thankfully, residents remained safe and we experienced no major issues," said Mr. Whittington. Stacy Ballew, of the 72nd ABW Civil Engineer Directorate, said the base has a lengthy list of storm damage ranging from leaky roofs, ceilings, windows and doors, loss of power to multiple facilities, loose gutters and multiple damaged fences. Some repairs were made quickly, while others like the R.E. Building will take some time to fix. "We're fighting Mother Nature to try and get stuff fixed," said Anton Saleeby, 72nd ABW/CE. "The costs are going up, so at this point we can just estimate the cost involved." Through it all, the chaplain has found a silver lining. "What a timely theme for the upcoming Catholic/Protestant Joint Vacation Bible School -- 'Everest. Conquering Challenges with God's Mighty Power,'" Chaplain Tucker said. "This is the perfect timing for all of us to exercise that theme. And we have done it."