Dora’s damage
to Johnston was
‘minimal’

Some people who work at the
chemical incinerator may
be back tomorrow

Weather page

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Damage to remote Johnston Atoll, home of the Army's chemical incineration plant, by Hurricane Dora was described as "minimal" today. The military expects that some of its more than 1,200 workers could return as early as tomorrow.

A Navy P-3 Orion sub-hunter aircraft from Kaneohe Marine Corps Base was dispatched at 7 a.m. today to do an aerial survey of the atoll, located 825 miles south of Honolulu.

The aircraft's crew was to determine whether the runway was clear of sand and able to support planes, said Army spokesman Bill Erwin.

Standing by was a Hawaii Air National Guard C-130 air cargo plane to carry an Army assessment team whose job will be to find out if power, water and sewage facilities are working.

Hurricane Dora passed about 70 miles south of the atoll at 8 last night.

Erwin said winds from the hurricane had subsided by then and were only about 52 mph, "something like I get off of my lanai."

He said it did not appear that the storm caused much damage or that it caused a breach in earth-covered storage facilities for chemical agents.

All Johnston Island workers were evacuated from the island by yesterday morning. About 200 are military personnel, and the rest are employed by Raytheon, operator of the incinerator plant, and other contractors.

Although the hurricane lost speed and veered farther from Johnston than originally anticipated, National Weather Service forecasters had said the storm could raise high surf with the potential of flooding the low-lying atoll.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said the population of seabirds nesting on Johnston and three adjacent small islands would likely be diminished by the storm.

Adult birds would probably survive, but not the young chicks and eggs of sooty terns and brown and black noddys, said Dave Johnson, project leader of the Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses the atoll.

Although this year's reproductive cycle could be destroyed at Johnston, bird populations elsewhere in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands will offset the loss, he said.

Fairbank said 83 percent of the chemical munitions once stored at Johnston Island has been destroyed. There are 352 tons remaining, expected to be destroyed within the next year, according to the Army spokesman.

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Mary Adamski contributed to this report.