re: Storm Aftermath - Hurricane Matthew will be Retired

quote:

---

The base that may be best known for its war-on-terror prison — now holding 61 detainees, staffed by about 2,000 temporary troops and contractors — also has sailors, families and contractors living there as more permanent residents. About 6,000 people live there in different circumstances, including about 250 school-age children with their Navy families and 2,000 Jamaican and Filipino contract laborers.

At the detention center, spokesman Navy Capt. John Filostrat said without providing details that preparations were under way for the storm. He did not reply to a question on what category of hurricane the buildings currently housing the detainees and command staff could withstand.

Sunday morning, as the evacuations were underway, Filostrat said the prison buildings where the 61 captives are kept "can withstand the current projected storm strength and the detainees will shelter in place. If the storm should intensify there is a plan in place to move the detainees to alternate shelters."

Former CIA prisoners, six of them awaiting death penalty trials as alleged al-Qaida plotters of the Sept. 11 and USS Cole terror attacks, are held in a clandestine prison building called Camp 7, whose structural integrity has been questioned. The current commander, Navy Rear Adm. Peter Clarke called it “structurally safe” in May, nearly two years after a former commander of the U.S. Southern Command, now retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, told Congress it had become “increasingly unsustainable due to drainage and foundation issues.”

---