USS Hornet’s new nemesis – El Niño

Staff at USS Hornet museum in Alameda, California are racing against time to repair the teak flight deck before El Niño brings heavy rain that will cause more damage to the interior of the ship.

USS Hornet (Alameda, CA)
By Sanfranman59 (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

No major maintenance was done to the flight deck since the carrier was retired from active duty in 1970. After 45 years, the teak layer is rotting and the steel below is rusting.

As a stop gap measure, the museum is plugging the leaks using a polyaspartic weather sealant but in the long-term, the Aircraft Carrier Hornet Foundation hopes to permanently replace the flight deck.

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