PORT HUENEME : Seabees Help Repair Volcano’s Damage

Nearly 300 Seabees from Port Hueneme have set to work at a U. S. Navy base in the Philippines to repair damage caused by 18 inches of volcanic ash and soot from the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, officials said Thursday.

About 160 members of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 have been joined by about 120 Seabees from Battalion 4 at the Subic Bay Naval Complex, said Connie Taylor, spokeswoman at Port Hueneme.

The Subic Bay base, about 20 miles west of the volcano, received more than a foot of ash during the eruption, causing considerable damage to at least 150 buildings, Taylor said.

Plying their skills in what the Seabees have called “Operation Fiery Vigil,” the Navy engineers and tradesmen are clearing ash and debris from a nearby naval runway and building a new type of Quonset hut that was first used in Operation Desert Storm, Taylor said.

Four Seabees with special training in metal-arched building construction will leave for the Philippines on Sunday from the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme. Still more Seabees will leave from their present post in Okinawa in the next two weeks.

“The monsoon season going on over there right now is making matters worse,” Taylor said. Heavy rains could dislodge more ash from Mt. Pinatubo and cause it to flow toward the base, she said.