NAWSCL BASE HOUSING UNDERGOES SWIFT TURNAROUND FOLLOWING EARTHQUAKES

Story by PO3 Jeffery Southerland on 07/17/2019

CHINA LAKE, Calif. (July 17, 2019) Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWSCL) authorized families to begin returning to their homes Monday, July 15 after issuing an evacuation order as a result of two major earthquakes just 10 days earlier.

All of the NAWSCL's 192 Public Private Venture (PPV) housing units have been assessed for damages following a base evacuation order issued by Rear Adm. Bette Bolivar, Commander, Navy Region Southwest, on July 6.

During the assessments, Navy Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) structural engineers, as well as Lincoln Military Housing (LMH) structural engineers and maintenance crews conducted multiple walkthroughs. After assessing homes, NAVFAC and LMH began coordination to quickly start making repairs.

"The maintenance crews went through and found broken gas and water lines as well as broken electrical sockets," said Chief Boatswain's Mate Brandon Gano, NAWSCL house recovery director. "All of which are being repaired at a rapid pace in accordance with California code, to ensure that our residence get back into a comfortable, habitable environment."

Over 180 Sailors and their families were evacuated from base housing. The base prioritized repairs to return the residents in a safe and timely manner.

"I was impressed by how quickly housing fixed up the damaged homes and returned families back," said Yeoman 2nd Class Mark Perez, a NAWSCL housing resident. "We were back in our house quickly."

To date 179 of the evacuated families have returned to their homes. Of the 192 PPV homes on base, seven were not cleared for occupancy due to damage. Temporary accommodations have been made for those families while repairs are completed.

Lincoln Military Housing advises returning tenants experiencing any issues with their homes to follow the three-step process located on their webpage at:

https://chinalake.navylifesw.com/modules/media/?do=download&id=1525492a-b2bb-4f9f-b80c-1023de5f0e84.