Ivan
It’s been a couple of days since Hurricane Ivan hit the gulf coast west of Tallahassee. We (meaning WCTV Channel 6) covered it from the beginning when it was a tropical storm all the way to its aftermath. I am glad it did not strike Tallahassee directly or was closer than it was but I am saddened at all the destruction it caused in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. Pensacola and the surrounding area got hit the hardest and that’s where my parents live. Their home suffered minimal damage but they are without power and won’t have electricity for 3 weeks or more. At least they are alive. Thousands of others weren’t so lucky. They lost their homes, businesses and as of this posting at least 42 people lost their lives in the U.S. due to Ivan while 70 died earlier in the Caribbean. 4 died not that far away in the small town of Blounstown, FL due to a tornado spawned by Ivan.
Two newspapers, The Pensacola News Journal and The Panama City News Herald each have pictures of the devastation available online. Also WJHG in Panama City, FL has a link to amazing video from their tower cam of the tornado that touched down and struck the broadcast building. The audio is the actual broadcast audio.
Many of WCTV’s viewers and employees have friends and relatives who were directly affected by Hurricane Ivan. One of my co-workers has three Aunts still missing. Another co-worker’s niece rode out the storm and witnessed a port-a-john in her backyard get knocked down and then pitched upright immediately thereafter “as if by magic.” The Interstate 10 bridge’s eastbound lane has over a quarter mile heavily damaged by waters in Pensacola Bay. If you have seen the pictures of the bridge on the news right after the storm, you’ll see the water almost touching the bottom of the bridge at its low points. I have drived across that bridge many times. Normally there is over a 30 foot drop from the bottom of the lowest portions of the bridge to the water so to rise up over the bridge and cause that much damage just shows how powerful a Category 3 Hurricane can be. I am glad it wasn’t a Cat. 5 like it was in the Caribbean. The destruction would have been unimaginable.
According to the latest reports I have read, every bridge and overpass west of Bay County, FL has suffered damage from Hurricane Ivan. In Pensacola for example, the I-10 causeway, the U.S. 90 bay bridge, the “3-mile bridge” leading into Gulf Breeze and the Bob Sikes Bridge going to Pensacola Beach all are now impassable.
And Pensacola Beach is pretty much gone as it was. I finally saw aerial footage and stills from there and it’s depressing. In some places the hurricane dug its own canals from the Gulf side to the sound side right through the road and buildings. There used to be a nice galleria shopping center with an old fashioned ice cream shop that is now almost completely gone.
I am curious how some places I have been to in the past couple of years in the Florida Panahandle fared. Like how did the Perdido Beach Resort do? Alvin’s Magic Mountain Mall in Panama City Beach. The “UFO House” on Pensacola Beach that survived prior storms. Joe Patti’s Seafood on Avenue A in Pensacola. The El Governor Motel in Mexico Beach, Florida. The San Roc Cay shopping complex in Perdido Key, Florida.
Lord only knows how long it will take before all the repairs will be finished on the roads, streets, bridges, homes, businesses, etc.
If you were directly affected by Hurricane Ivan or know of someone who is, please know my thoughts and prayers are with all the victims of that devastating storm.
As someone else who lives in Hurricane Country, I can truly understand what it is you are going through now. The hurricane itself demands attention. Indeed in the days leading up to the storm and during the storm itself, tropical systems grab attention and sympathy from all over the country. However, once they leave and the destruction is revealed, the news media and therefore the nation-wide general public tends to take its attention elsewhere. Ironically, that is exactly when you need attention most.
Getting homes and business repaired can take weeks or months. Sometimes longer. But the real impact is on the people themselves. To those of us along the southern US coastlines, our memories are punctuated by deadly and materially devastating storms. Perhaps it is not so unlike the memories of folks who witnessed the 9/11 disaster. Utter names like “The 1900 Storm,” “1935 Labor Day Hurricane,” “Carla,” “Alicia,” “Camille,” “Beulah,” “Andrew,” “Georges,” and now “Bonnie,” “Charlie,” “Frances,” or “Ivan,” to one of us and you will see our facial expression immediately change. There are so many emotions tied to those names for us. One down here knows of life in parts–the time leading up to the storm coupled with the storm itself and the time after the storm. We know when we first heard that it might approach our area. We know what it is like to be told to leave. We recall comparing evacuation maps to our own address and the suggested routes. We know exactly where we were when it hit. We know what we were doing during the storm itself. We know what it is like to hear what we thought were structurally sound buildings being ripped to pieces by powerful winds. We know what it is like to hear flood waters tied to a tropical system push a house off of its foundation. We also know what it is like to emerge for the first time from your safe place to witness the destruction done. That gut grabbing, emotional downfall is hard to forget. The details will still be with us for a lifetime. We can tell you how many perished during the worst of the weather. We know folks who were lucky to get out with the clothes on their backs. We know folks who got through the storm okay bodily but lost absolutely everything including personal, irreplaceable items like family photos or personal mementos. We can tell you which homes and other buildings were so badly damaged that they will never be rebuilt. We can show you roads and bridges which might take years to repair. We can show you where the beach used to go a quarter mile further out.
So, you see…. I know what you are going through because I have been there too. God Bless all of those who have undergone tropical weather this year.
MrsA
Comment by MrsA — 9/20/2004 @ 8:29 am