It looks like KSC was spared a major catastrophe, but Frances inflicted damage to the Shuttle facilities that may lead to further damage, if Ivan should follow a similar path.
HoustonChronicle.com – Hurricane spares shuttles, but …
Hurricane Frances spared NASA’s depleted shuttle fleet but ripped away siding from a towering landmark Kennedy Space Center facility, exposing the critical enclosure to the potential wrath of another Atlantic storm, space agency officials said Monday…
A second significant finding was the heavy damage to the shuttle’s tile repair shop. The shop is where the hundreds of soft silica tiles that protect the outside of the shuttle from the searing temperatures of the high-speed descent through the Earth’s atmosphere are repaired or replaced between missions.
The space agency will attempt to resurrect a previous tile shop at Boeing Co. facilities in Palmdale, Calif.
It should be interesting to see what this does to the cost and schedule for return-to-flight. Not only are there the hurricane closure downtime and the cost and delay for facility repairs to consider, but with TPS tiles and blankets on the critical path for RTF, the added time and expense involved in moving their fabrication to Palmdale will only make things worse.