NORFOLK -- Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, Rear Admiral Mark Boensel, announced Thursday that only alpha/essential personnel need to report Friday at all Navy installations in the Hampton Roads area from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Non-essential personnel should not report to work during this time period.
Meantime, regional port operations on Thursday were removing brows from ships that remain in port as a safety precaution.
Meantime, the 61 ships in port at Naval Station Norfolk and Little Creek are are tied up at their piers and ready to weather the storm.
The recommendation to keep the ships at home instead of getting underway fell to 2nd Fleet Vice Admiral Dan Holloway.
"It was very important that we consider the course of action - to stay in versus the pros and cons of getting underway," VADM Holloway said Thursday. "We didn't see the surge at eight feet and we didn't see the destructive winds. Therefore it was absolutely the right move for a prudent mariner and caretaker of these ships and sailors -- safety first and the mission -- for the shpis to be alongside the pier for this storm:"
Admiral Holloway said he considered scientific data, including 15 different computer models of Earl's projected path.
