Found the below on Al.com
http://www.al.com/printer/printer.ssf?/ ... thispage=2
I remember there was someone that listed the aircraft destroyed. Anyone have any recent pictures?
Thanks Dave in NJ
BATTLESHIP MEMORIAL PARK PLAIN WRECKED
Monday, March 05, 2007
By GEORGE WERNETH
Staff Reporter
When the executive director of Battleship Memorial Park first eyed the damages there from Hurricane Katrina some 18 months ago, he figured the repairs would cost about $1.5 million to $2 million.
That was then, this is now.
"We are approaching $7 million in total repairs," Bill Tunnell, the park's executive director, said in a recent interview.
He said the higher costs were caused, in large part, by the difficulty of straightening the 80 million-pound Battleship USS Alabama from an 8-degree list left by the hurricane.
Also affecting the expense and timeframe of repairs, he said, were shortages of labor and materials as a result of Katrina's widespread devastation in the coastal region.
"We originally thought it would take as long as 30 days and as much as $50,000 to straighten the ship," Tunnell said. But, he said, because of the unusual way Katrina's storm surge affected the World War II battleship, the work required nine months and $2.7 million.
An estimated 12-foot storm surge lifted the 680-foot-long battleship out of the "bowl" it had rested in since the park opened in 1965, Tunnell said.
When the water receded, the Alabama was left listing to port on the side of a sand bank that surrounded the bowl.
The sand had piled up there, he said, as a result of dredging work, which was done to move the battleship into place at the park four decades ago.
The straightening employed a variety of methods, chiefly dredging and high water pressure and air pressure to remove the sand, Tunnell said.
The ship is now back standing tall and, Tunnell said, most of the repairs at the park along the Mobile Bay Causeway are complete. "With the exception of the park's aircraft -- hopefully, we'll be finished by fall," he said.
In addition to the cost of straightening, Tunnell said, another $560,000 was needed to replace the battleship's demolished concrete gangway and to repair a second damaged gangway. Some minor ship-protection-related work remains to be done at a cost of $300,000.
Repairs to the park's 36,000-square-foot Aircraft Pavilion, which housed a dozen or so vintage military aircraft, is costing slightly more than $1 million. "We'll probably have it back open in a couple of weeks," he said.
Prior to Katrina, the park had 24 military aircraft. The hurricane's storm surge destroyed three and dealt major damage to 17 others, Tunnell said.
"Normally we would have had about a dozen aircraft inside the pavilion, but we moved some others inside," before Katrina hit, he said. "The storm surge broke through the whole back wall of the pavilion and shredded the whole back metal wall."
He said the storm crashed the aircraft into each other, causing considerable damage.
Heading up the repairs to the park's aircraft -- which date from World War II to present-day planes -- is longtime employee Mike Thompson, a Vietnam veteran. He said he's been keeping in contact with officials with several military aircraft museums to obtain advice and assistance, including locating needed parts.
Thompson said he and employee Roger Hunter are currently repairing a damaged Air Force F-105 jet. Thompson plans to soon begin work on the park's A-12 Blackbird, a spy plane built in 1960 which flew at altitudes of up to 93,500 feet at three times the speed of sound.
Thompson said it could be three more years before all of the park's aircraft are restored.
The cost of the park's Katrina recovery would have exceeded $7 million if not for the efforts and skills of the park's three dozen employees, Tunnell said.
"If we had to contract out everything our employees did, it would have been a huge expense," he said.
He said the park lost an estimated $750,000 in revenue during the four months it was closed because of Katrina. Before the hurricane, the park drew about 300,000 visitors a year. Although the park remained closed only nine days into 2006, attendance for that year stood well below normal.
"Last year, we had 174,000 visitors. You're talking about a couple of million dollars in operating funds we didn't have," he said.
While the park had insurance, Tunnell said, "state insurance is not covering any damage which is flood-related, and we'll probably get less than $500,000."
He said the park could end up owing a couple of million dollars for repairs after receiving whatever its insurance pays out.
In a worst-case scenario, the park could owe as much as $3.5 million, depending on how much the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides.
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