Grissom Air Force Base in Indiana to protect jets from eastern storm

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- An Indiana air base may provide a temporary home to military jets in the path of Hurricane Isabel.\nThe Air Force is monitoring the storm to decide whether to send some planes west to Grissom Air Force Base, about 60 miles north of Indianapolis.\nThe base has agreed to take about 60 planes, mostly F-15 jets, from Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va., said Capt. Jeff Glenn, spokesman for the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley, Va.\nSome planes that cannot fly because they are being repaired will be put into hangars, but Langley does not have hangars for all its planes, Glenn said.\n"They're multi-million-dollar machines, so the smart thing to do is fly them and let them sit out the storm where it's safe," Glenn said.\nThe storm weakened slightly Monday but still packed powerful Category 4 winds of 150 mph as it swept across the Atlantic Ocean. Forecast models showed the storm hitting the East Coast somewhere between North Carolina and New Jersey with 130 mph winds late Thursday or early Friday.\nIsabel is expected to move along the western edge of the Chesapeake Bay on Thursday and Friday, said Fay Crossley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield.