Naval Station Mayport asks families to stay where they are for now, will send update when safe to return to base

Jacksonville, FL — If your family evacuated from Naval Station Mayport ahead of Hurricane Irma, you're asked to stay where you are for now.

Command Master Chief Bill Houlihan tells us they're currently working on assessing any damage to the base, as well as base housing.

"As of right now, we have workers all over the base making progress, and we will get word out to families when it is time to come back home to Naval Station Mayport. We are not taking this lightly, obviously, but we never take the safety of our families lightly. This is a situation where we believe that housing is in good shape, but needs to be a little better before we can bring families, safely, back on base," says Houlihan.

As for damage on base, Houlihan says they didn't see anything 'catastrophic.'

But he adds, "There are trees down, there are some trees on home, there's debris in housing. Safe passage through the roads of housing is not guaranteed right now, until we get it cleaned up. Until we have that cleared, we do not determine that it is completely safe."

Naval Station Mayport plans to update families via social media and internal messaging when they can return to base.