ivan....8 years ago today

[docjoe]

changed a lot of lives and the landscape. one day i will never forget

joe

[vbhoutex]

You are so right. I have a friend who lost her home on P'cola Beach and her job teaching kindergarten. She has never fully recovered mentally from it unfortunately and has moved back to LA. Of course she just went through Issac so she didn't get away from anything by making the move.

[jinftl]

Some remarkable facts on Ivan:

* Reached Cat 5 status 3 times during his life
* Southernmost hurricane on record to achieve major hurricane status (10.2 N latitude in the Central Atlantic)
* A total of 112 reconnaissance center flights were made into Ivan- 95 by U.S. Air Force Reserve and 17 by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters
* Maximum sustained wind measured on land - winds sustained at 148 mph with a gust to 170 mph at Grand Cayman!!!
* Caused 117 tornados once he made landfall across the southeast and mid-atlantic states
* Ivan had the world record of 33 (32 consecutive) 6-hour periods with an intensity at or above Category 4 strength (until Ioke beat it in '06)
* Total storm ACE (Accumulated Cyclone Energy) of 70.4 (2nd highest on record in Atlantic, higher ACE than some entire seasons)
* Scientists from the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi have used a computer model to predict that, at the height of the storm, the maximum wave height within Ivan's eyewall reached 131 feet (40 m)
* Days before the storm, USA Today headlined a direct hit on New Orleans would result in the city becoming a 'modern Atlantis'. The city dodged a bullet with Ivan.

[MGC]

Ivan was quite a hurricane. Had me sitting on pins and needles for a few days. If it had hit here it would be Ivan instead of Katrina....MGC

[superstareporter]

I rode it out at my girlfriends house about 10 miles inland and it was one of the longest nights of my life. The shingles all came off and water poured into the house ruining everything. I too lost my home on Pensacola Beach and pretty much everything in it, moved into a motor home with my girlfriend and toured the U.S. for almost 4 years. During that time I launched a photography project, "The One Shoe Diaries" and got national attention and somewhat famous for my Lost Sole photos, and went on to publish 3 One Shoe Diaries volumes. Also during those years we got married and conceived a child that we never thought we would want. But came to love him, only to lose him at birth. His name was Noah and he touched many lives without ever taking a breath. We stopped traveling and moved into a house back in Pensacola. God blessed us with another child, a baby girl we named Nora that is now 3 years old and the most beautiful thing in the world to us. While it started out as a disaster, it ended up being the best thing that could have ever happened to us. As maybe without Ivan there would be no Nora

[otowntiger]

I rode it out at my girlfriends house about 10 miles inland and it was one of the longest nights of my life. The shingles all came off and water poured into the house ruining everything. I too lost my home on Pensacola Beach and pretty much everything in it, moved into a motor home with my girlfriend and toured the U.S. for almost 4 years. During that time I launched a photography project, "The One Shoe Diaries" and got national attention and somewhat famous for my Lost Sole photos, and went on to publish 3 One Shoe Diaries volumes. Also during those years we got married and conceived a child that we never thought we would want. But came to love him, only to lose him at birth. His name was Noah and he touched many lives without ever taking a breath. We stopped traveling and moved into a house back in Pensacola. God blessed us with another child, a baby girl we named Nora that is now 3 years old and the most beautiful thing in the world to us. While it started out as a disaster, it ended up being the best thing that could have ever happened to us. As maybe without Ivan there would be no Nora

And to think it could have been far worse because if memory serves Ivan weakened considerably just before it reached the shore. But the most serious damage it did was the great storm surge generated when it was much stronger out in the gulf, much like Katrina, but Ivan weakened even faster than Katrina did.

[CrazyC83]

Some remarkable facts on Ivan:

* Reached Cat 5 status 3 times during his life
* Southernmost hurricane on record to achieve major hurricane status (10.2 N latitude in the Central Atlantic)
* A total of 112 reconnaissance center flights were made into Ivan- 95 by U.S. Air Force Reserve and 17 by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters
* Maximum sustained wind measured on land - winds sustained at 148 mph with a gust to 170 mph at Grand Cayman!!!
* Caused 117 tornados once he made landfall across the southeast and mid-atlantic states
* Ivan had the world record of 33 (32 consecutive) 6-hour periods with an intensity at or above Category 4 strength (until Ioke beat it in '06)
* Total storm ACE (Accumulated Cyclone Energy) of 70.4 (2nd highest on record in Atlantic, higher ACE than some entire seasons)
* Scientists from the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi have used a computer model to predict that, at the height of the storm, the maximum wave height within Ivan's eyewall reached 131 feet (40 m)
* Days before the storm, USA Today headlined a direct hit on New Orleans would result in the city becoming a 'modern Atlantis'. The city dodged a bullet with Ivan.

Not to mention, although this still brings up a ton of controversy, Ivan actually went full circle and redeveloped in the Gulf a week after first landfall...