Storm-Related Damage at Camp Pendleton May Top $100 Million

Estimates of damage at the Marine base here from last month’s flooding--which washed out roads, bridges and wells, and dumped tons of mud on an airfield--could reach more than $100 million, a spokesman said Friday.

Earlier damage estimates of $72 million did not include about $15 million worth of losses incurred by the airfield, helicopters and structures.

Lt. Kevin Bentley said 10 military units, including the Navy, have some type of operation within the sprawling, 125,000-acre base.

“If you ask for the estimate on the base alone, it’s around $70 million. If you ask estimates on the airfield, it’s an additional $15 million. Now, with the 10 other organizations, you can see that all damage on the compound is going to be somewhere close to the $100-million figure,” Bentley said.

But an official from the El Toro Marine Base, which operates an airfield at Camp Pendleton, said the $15-million estimate of airfield losses has been upped to $55 million.

Visitors to the base since a levee burst Jan. 16, sending a six-foot wall of water crashing onto the airfield, said they have seen unbelievable destruction.

The flooding knocked out water and power to the base. Basilone Bridge, on a major north-south artery that connected the main base to Camp Margarita, “was wiped out,” Bentley said.

“We saw buildings move a half-mile away, cars (were tossed) upside-down, railroad tracks were left spanning gaps--and beneath the gaps there was no more earth, only air under the tracks,” Bentley said.

The air station operates under the auspices of the 3rd Marines Aircraft Wing, commanded at the El Toro Marine Base.

El Toro spokesman Lt. Brad Bartelt said his base’s analysis has pushed the estimate of losses at the airfield to $55 million.

“We’re going to have to pull apart the aircraft checking for damage to avionics, such as navigational equipment,” Bartelt said.

Bartelt said 47 of the 71 aircraft at the air station were damaged in the storm. That included such expensive aircraft as UH-1 Huey helicopters, OV-10 Broncos--fixed-wing observation airplanes--and AH-1 Cobras, attack helicopters costing $10.5 million each.

Marines did not have enough time to move the aircraft to higher ground. As a result, the craft were covered with mud and debris.