Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, suffered heavy damage after taking a direct hit from Hurricane Michael. All of the older buildings on the base, home to more than 3,500 airmen and workplace for more than 10,000 people, were leveled by the hurricane and even new buildings on the base sustained significant damage. Florida Senator Bill Nelson said that fears the base would be closed are unfounded because Tyndall is close to the Gulf Test Range, nearly 120,000 square miles in the eastern Gulf of Mexico used for high-altitude supersonic air combat training, air-to-air missile testing, drone targeting, hypersonic weapons testing and space launches and is critical to national security, and to the economy as well.
