Ivan's Page
On the morning of Tuesday, September 14th, 2004, Hurricane Ivan, with sustained winds of 140mph, entered the Gulf of Mexico after leaving a trail of death and destruction in the islands of the Caribbean. The projected landfall for Ivan along the Gulf Coast was from the Alabama/Mississippi boarder through the Florida Panhandle down to Apalachicola.
We had been keeping an eye on this vicious storm, and the day before we had decided that we needed to prepare for the now real possibility of Ivan landing near us. Cedric had already been recalled by the Navy that Sunday to take the boats to a secure location to ride out the storm. Now it was my turn to get ready.
I aquired boards for the windows and began stocking up on water, canned food and instant noodles. Essential and important papers were put in a suitcase in case of an evacuation and I began bringing in all my lawn and garden paraphenelia. I took as much off the floors as possible in case of flooding, and got the cat carrier out.
Tuesday was spent boarding the house up. Thanks to the help of my neighbours, mine was done very quickly. I then spent the rest of the day driving other neighbours out to the lumber yard to get them the Panhandle's hottest commodity: plywood. By evening, according to the weather reports, things were looking grim for our area. Landfall had been narrowed down to two possibilities; the Alabama/Mississippi boarder, or over Mobile Bay. This left Pensacola on the east side of the storm which is the worst place to be as most of the rain, wind and tornadic activity occurs here. All we were wondering now was whether Ivan was going to weaken and spare us a bad hit.
By Wednesday morning, the conclusion was that Ivan was not going to weaken but was about to make history as one of the worst storms to hit the Gulf Coast. The neighbours helped each other finish boarding up while the some of us secured hotel rooms. By 11.30 a.m. September 15th, 3 other neighbours and myself were on the road to King's Bay Georgia.
The house before Ivan hit. Notice the lovely trees in the background.
The back of the house boarded up. Such a neat lawn.
More boarded house.
Other side of boarded house.
Traffic was light heading out of Pensacola. Traffic heading into Pensacola consisted of convoys of power trucks, tree cutters, the National Guardsmen. It was rather eerie to see that and, I think, it was my first inkling of the potential severity of the situation we were leaving behind. Seven hours later, we were in King's Bay, exhausted and anxious. Sleep was broken and I was glued to the weather channel. The cats had settled and were asleep, blissfully unaware of the tempest that was wrecking havoc in their home town. Just before landfall, Ivan made a jog to the east and slammed onshore at 2.30 a.m. at Gulf Shores, Alabama. Ivan's eye was estimated to be sixty miles wide. My home is located just aound 30 miles from Gulf Shores, therefore our area (Perdido Key/West Pensacola) took the full brunt of the north eastern quadrant of the eye. This meant that winds of 135mph were sustained over us for the longest possible time. We did not have the benefit of the break offered by the eye. It was a worst case scenario for us.
By morning, rumours were running rampant. Our neighbour's sister, who stayed in Pensacola through the storm, called with the gut wrenching news that Gulf Beach Hwy (the main road to our subdivision) was unpassable and that she was told by a National Guard that just about everything back down the road was gone. No one was allowed through because of debris and body recovery. Later that afternoon, a glimmer of hope. Another neighbour called. He had heard from Christine, a neighbour who had stayed behind in our subdivision. She had taken a walk through the subdivision and we fared well. No structural damage; just downed fences and trees and some loose shingles!!!
I spoke to Cedric who's boat crew were going to attempt to return to Pensacola. He called on Friday morning to say that the house was fine. In fact, The Estates at Emerald Shores, my subdivision, sustained almost no damage apart from what I mentioned above. Out on Gulf Beach Hwy it was a different story. A storm surge of between 30 to 40 feet had crossed the barrier islands (Johnson's Beach was our barrier island), made it's way across Big Lagoon and wiped out homes, condos and businesses on the waterfront side of Gulf Beach Hwy. The surge stopped right by the entrance of our subdivision. Further down the road, the subdivision of Grande Lagoon was virtually wiped out.
We returned from Georgia on Saturday. As we got closer to the Panhandle, you could see the storm damage. We were about 100 miles out when we were diverted and there were already downed trees and some missing shingles and slight debris. The nearer to Pensacola we got, the more damage we could see. When we finally got to Gulf Beach Hwy it was utter chaos. Every other tree had come down, fences were all crushed and scattered, utility poles were snapped in two. Further down the road, we could see driftwood, parts of sidings, roofs, trees, debris from peoples' homes strewn around, all of which had been pushed to the side of the road to make way for the residents returning and the emergency vehicles. Where the marina boat storage place was, you could see pleasure boats all thrown on top of each other or in what was once someones house, or was it their garden? The condos and houses there had trees in what was left standing of the structure and personal belongings were just everywhere amidst the branches of trees, driftwood and general garbage. My favourite restaurant across from my subdivision was gone. All that was left were the stilts it stood on with the top crushing down on it.
The entrance to the subdivision was messy with down trees. The inbound lane was still unpassable, so we entered through the outbound. The gardens looked horrible with down trees, pine needles strewn everywhere, shingles missing from roofs, fences down. Ever single house was still standing though and there was no damage to the structures! Then we turned into our street. Same story. Just so very sad to see the mess, but the euphoria of being able to come back to a standing home was incredible. Personally, I did not loose a shingle. Just a downspout from my gutter which I can just put back since I found it. My greenbelt is a different story. I had 3 trees down and one leaning dangerously over my neighbour's house. The woods look really bare now with so much of the foliage lost (most of it on my lawn, roof and gutters!!). It reminds me of winter. We found we had running water and the gas was on so we could have hot showers. No electricity, phone service or cable TV/internet though.
The house after Ivan hit. Notice the lovely trees in the background leaning and ravaged.
Back of the house and greenbelt. Now brownbelt.
Pine needles everywhere on my patio.
A View of the woods.
Another view of the woods.
After surveying the damage to each property, the returning neighbours just went out and hugged each other, thankful that so far, everyone had made it unscathed. I then, took down the boards on the windows of my house, aired the place out and left all my windows open. I dragged my matress into the living room where I had a lovely cross breeze and set up my bed there. The cats were then fed and they went to bed! :-) I went outside that night, taking advantage of a cloudless night to see the milky way. It was so amazingly beautiful.
The next morning, I found an adaptor Ced had bought, plugged it into the cigarette lighter of the car, ground some coffee beans and made fresh coffee for the street. We had a communial breakfast and then got down to planning. Some of us volunteered to go to get ice and water in the ration lines (3 hours long!) while others started cutting down the easier trees and the people with generators worked out how to make the most of the generators so that we could all at least have some sort of power. The Prip family next door let me share theirs so that I could plug my refrigerator into it (after cleaning away all the bad food). Electricity came back on Wednesday and finally phone service on Thursday!
Piles of raked debris ready for bagging.
Bagged for pick up. Twenty eight bags in all!
We are so grateful to the wonderful people who came to our corner of the world to help us out. The amazing men and women from power companies from as far as Texas and even Quebec who got our power back on so quickly, the National Guardsmen who kept things under control and manned the ice, water and ration lines with humour and kindness, the tree cutters who worked night and day to clear the way for the power people to get to work and, to all the Police agencies who came here to help keep everything together. Thank you so much!
It has been about a week and a half now after Ivan. Pensacola was devastated. Yet, the people of Pensacola are pulling together and moving on with life. The strength of character and the kindness and patience of people here have amazed me. I know Pensacola is a scenically beautiful place (will be again soon, no doubt), but the spirit of the place is a gem. Neighbour helping neighbour, strangers coming together to help each other. This place is what true southern hospitality is all about.
I am proud to call Pensacola my home!
Click for more pictures of Ivan's devastation and map.
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Gwynedd C.
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