Cape Canaveral Partially Reopens As NASA Evaluates Hurricane Matthew’s Damage

As Florida prepared itself for the effect of Hurricane Matthew, it appeared as if Cape Canaveral, the location of NASA's Kennedy Space Centre, would come directly in the storm's path. The staff was brought down to a skeleton crew to lessen the impact of the storm, and the park was shut for visitors.

But to everyone surprise, before Hurricane Matthew could hit the Cape Canaveral complex, the winds moved to another direction and the storm began to weaken. As the storm shifted away, the skeleton crew rushed to assess the damage immediately.

The results from the analysis of NASA's Cape Canaveral center are good. Though Hurricane Matthew was extremely fierce, the damage done was minor, and the space center was opened partially for visitors on Sunday (09 October, 2016).

NASA photos reveal only minor space centre damage from Hurricane Matthew https://t.co/DV7sNhvm1W by @SciGuySpace

— Ars Technica UK (@ArsTechnicaUK) October 9, 2016

"We dodged a bit of a bullet last night with things shifting to the east and the storm being less intense overall," Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, commander of 45th Space Wing, stated in a Facebook post on Friday. He added, "That said, we are not out of the woods yet and your safety remains my primary concern."

The NASA complex contains multiple launch pads, office buildings and the enormous Vehicle Assembly Building that was designed to construct and accommodate the massive Saturn V rocket. The inspections will take some time to be completed and assess the damage suffered by every building in the Cape Canaveral complex, the preliminary results of damage are seemingly minor.

Had the NASA complex been hit directly by Hurricane Matthew, it would have suffered far more serious damage that would have been immensely critical as compared to the damage has been done now. George Diller, the spokesperson for NASA's Kennedy Space Centre and a part of the Launch Control Team during the hurricane told Florida Today, "The kind of damage we have now is what I'd call collateral damage. We're not seeing anything to flight hardware yet that we know of."

One of NASA's blogs stated that the damage assessment began as soon as the winds were dropped to a relatively safe level on Friday. Aerial surveys were carried out on Saturday which reported that there had been some remote roof damage, damaged support buildings, a few downed power lines, and limited water intrusion, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

As the further line of action, the inspectors need to make sure that the damage suffered by each building is as minor as it seemed in the aerial survey and the buildings are safe. Though the space centre was reopened for visitors on Sunday, some areas of the complex will remain shut till the investigations are completed.