VERO BEACH — Vero Beach Regional Airport is expected to reopen Saturday morning after experiencing only minimal damage during Hurricane Matthew.
City Airport Director Eric Menger said late Friday that he was waiting for Federal Aviation Administration inspectors to complete their assessment of the control tower, equipment and the airfield. He expected the airport to be open for business no later than 10 a.m.
“We’re coordinating with the FAA to make sure everything works properly and is up to standards, but we shouldn’t have any problems,” Menger said. “We did a preliminary assessment before sunrise (Friday), then did a more extensive one about 8 a.m.
“The airfield looks good,” he added. “The water drained the way it was supposed to. The markings and signs were still in place, except for the signs we took down so they wouldn’t blow away. We also checked the security fence.
“The only damage we saw was to some of the hangars, but it wasn’t anything major.”
Though the airport was closed in preparation for the storm, Menger said he and a “skeleton crew of essential personnel” spent Thursday night in the terminal building, where they rode out the storm.
Neither the airport terminal nor tower lost power during the hurricane, which was the first to hit the Vero Beach area since Wilma in October 2005, but the airfield lighting was lost for a few hours before being restored Friday morning.
The airplanes parked at the airport were either in hangars or tied down outdoors with their noses pointed to the northeast — into the hurricane’s projected winds.
“There were about 13 or 14 tied down,” Menger said, “and when we checked on them in the morning, they all seemed to be right where we left them.”
Many other owners opted to fly their aircraft out of town and park them at airports in areas not expected to be impacted by the storm. Menger said those airplanes are expected to start returning Saturday.
“In situations like this, we’re the exact opposite of a marina,” Menger said. “Usually, when boaters see a storm like this approaching, they bring their boats into a marina to keep them safe. Airplane owners, on the other hand, want to get their planes out of harm’s way.
“A lot of airplanes flew out before the storm.”
Menger said the impact of Hurricane Matthew was “way, way less than what we experienced with Frances and Jeanne in 2004,” and he saw no reason why the airport wouldn’t be “back to normal” this weekend.
