White Sands damage estimated in millions

Roughly estimated, the damage caused at White Sands Missile Range due to hurricane-force winds that blew through there Tuesday is $2 million to $6 million. Gerry Veara, director of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security at WSMR, said continued gusty winds Wednesday, in excess of 30 mph, prevented officials from completing an extensive assessment of a two-story, 30,000 square foot building that had about two-thirds of its roof blown off when winds from a strong winter storm pushed through southern New Mexico on Tuesday. Veara was among five people inside the range's Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security building at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday when the roof was blown off. Altogether, there are about 75 WSMR employees who worked there. "The very first thing that happened is that the power went out," Veara said. "It got very loud, very dark. I huddled, in a fetal position, against a wall until it was over. It seemed to last a couple of minutes, but in a situation like that you really don't know for sure how long it was. It was probably less. I remember the first thing I was thinking after it stopped was 'wow, I'm still here.'" Veara said he walked into the hallway of the building's second floor and saw a woman who looked visibly shaken. He helped her get out of the building and initially wanted to put her inside a police car. But he discovered that the windows to many of the vehicles parked outside the building were shattered from the force of the wind. "Of the six windows in my car, five were blown out," Veara said...read more