Experiences of hurricane ivan

[du1st]

Anyone who has lived through ivan please tell me your experiences.

[Ivanhater]

well i live in pcola so it was the worst of the worst, the days following up to ivan, it was just your normal prepare and evacuate, the day of ivan there was nothing more to do than just wait, we had it on the local news where they were showing the web came on pcola beach of the waves crashing over the pier, about at 9:00 the power went out, but i got a pizza in the oven right before, lol, last time i went outside was about 10:00, then it got to bad, we were just sitting in the dark with flashlights and listening to the radio, the sound of the wind was horrific, the back door was busting in so we had to move the couch in front of it, on the radio there were reports of tornado's everywhere, and i ran into the hallway quite a few times, at around 2:00 (the worst part of the storm) i crawled up to the window and saw the trees bending down and heard the sound of the wind, that sound was unforgettable, we couldnt see the radar but on the radio they said they eastern eye wall was coming on to shore over pcola, which meant we would not get a break during they eye , after it was over we walked outisde and saw the damage, the only worked that came to me was devastation, my jaw dropped, it was a complete war zone here, something ill never forget or will go through ever again

[beachbum_al]

Lets see. We with power for 24 hours. We were lucky! Other people were without power at a lot longer. When I drove into our yard I found my neighbor's chimney in my backyard. She had a big hole in her living room. Our fence was down. Trees were blown down. We were very lucky.


Now lets fast forward to my trip down to Orange Beach to check on the inlaw's condo and my husband's aunt and uncles place. I grew up in this area so not only was this shocking for me but also depressing. We drove down the intercoastal/canal street. Foley had been hit hard so I knew the beach was bad. Business were damage. Trees were down. Roofs were damaged. As we turned onto the main strip that runs down the beach I saw big condos completely demolished. Houses moved and completely destroyed. The strangest thing was that one house would be completely destroyed while the one that was right next to it was slightly damaged. It was like a hit and miss thing. Sand was all over the road. As we turn into the road to go to my inlaw's place The View was completely destroyed. It was like it came crashing in. Scary because early in my marriage my husband and I stayed over Thanksgiving with his family. The Grande Pointe was damaged but still standing. The Perdido Beach Resort had major damage but also was still standing. The house next to the Grande Pointe was destroyed. In between the two Views a house was still standing but badly damaged. Later would be torn down. My inlaws unit was untouched. The units of Summer Breeze which faced the beach did have damaged but are back in business now. It is just amazing to me how some building were destroyed and other were not. One of the reasons I think Summer Breeze was spare is because the sand dunes in front it protected it.

Later that afternoon I was walking along the beach. I think this is when reality really hit me hard. Ivan not only destroyed condos that people rented but these were actually homes for some people. The beach was filled with personal belongings. Even a Santa Claus manage to survive the storm. There was blender sitting on one of the concrete slabs that survived but not the building.

Also I will never get the image of National Guard members armed with m60s (I think). I know they were doing during their job but it was frightening to think that this world has come to this that people have to be armed to protect those who have already lost everything.

Also I remember while cleaning up down there the red cross coming by and fixing us hot meals and cold drinks. My girls were with since I couldn't find anyone to keep them. The Red Cross had stuff for them even.

Was I ever scared during the storm? Hell yes but not really for myself but for my girls. I didn't want them to be scared. They weren't! As far as I am concern if my house was gone it was only materialistic. As long as I have my family that is all that matters. Not saying that I want my house to be destroyed! That would be bad but not something I couldn't deal with.

Hope I didn't bore you!

Oh I almost forget. My sister who lives in Pace/Milton area but works in the Pensacola area told me stories that would make you shiver and cry at the same time.

[GulfBreezer]

Bottom Line.............

I lost everything I owned.........
House, job, and all of my belongings in my home.

However.............with that being said, my life now is the best it has ever been and we are STILL rebuilding from IVAN!

What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger.

[LizzardInFlorida]

Bottom Line.............

I lost everything I owned.........
House, job, and all of my belongings in my home.

However.............with that being said, my life now is the best it has ever been and we are STILL rebuilding from IVAN!

What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger.

GulfBreezer,
You certainly have a good attitude - and a great outlook on life in general. I'm sorry for all your losses.

Thanks to all those sharing their stories here.

It really brings a human element to the storms we track so carefully.

[iceangel]

I live in Northpoint Subdivision with entrances on Scenic Highway and Olive Rd. and we were not spared either. We lost the privacy fence, pool and the ceiling of the garage partially caved in. A big tree fell and just scraped the house. It looked like all the down trees in our neighborhood, were down by a tornado. Some went through roofs of houses and some others were just twisted and uprooted. Trees were all over the place. We had to stay with my aunt and uncle for about a week, because their bedroom was damaged and the ceiling was about to cave in. We were without power for about a week. My cousin and her husband came down from North Carolina and brought us a generator. Lo and behold, we got the power back the next day. My mom got sick and had to go to the West Florida makeshift emergency room. She was ok though! She got to meet Jeb Bush and Donald Rumsfeld while there.

[Jim Cantore]

I live all the way in New Jersey and Ivans remnents beat us up with some Major flooding and winds gusting to near 50mph

I mean REALLY bad flooding

[SunnyThoughts]

My heart goes out to Gulfbreezer and everyone else in her situation after Ivan. Here in Pace, just to the east of Pensacola we had alot of damage also. Driving back after evacuating it was as if we were entering a different location...NOTHING looked the same. We had roof damage (which has since been repaired and stood up well under Dennis) numerous trees down that thankfully missed the house, what trees weren't broken or uprooted, were left for Dennis to finish off...which he did in fine fashion. I also agree with Gulfbreezer about what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...If that is truely the case, I think those of us along the northern Gulf coast of FLa are plenty strong enough to last say...10 years or so?

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

My heart goes out to all who have experienced these disasters.

I wish so badly that there were a way to build hurricane
proof houses and hurricane proof structures. Will this ever be possible anytime soon?

I think it may be possible in 10-15 years hopefully,
so that homes will stop being destroyed.

For homes already built, hopefully we will find a material that can
reinforce those structures in next 10-15 years.

[rolltide]

What a long night. Things started getting bad around 10:00 PM and by 2:00 AM things were getting scary. The howl of the wind is something you cannot imagine until you hear it. On top of that you add the crashing noises of who knows what breaking or coming apart. Then you have the frequent LOUD bangs of things hitting the house. For a while every gust got stronger and you just hoped that as bad as it would get. Our house was creaking and cracking every time a gust would hit it. Finally the gusts stopped geting stronger and around 4:30 AM I took a nap ( I was dead tired) I woke up at 6:30 and my roommate said "it's a whole new world out there". He was right. When I opened the door I was shocked. There were trees down everywhere and I had to climb though them to get to the street. The trees that were still standing were stripped of all leaves and most limbs. I went for a walk and was amazed at the damage. I saw homes with trees smashed though the roof and some with parts of roofs missing. I saw several cars and trucks that had trees down on them. A man had parked his brand new pickup right next to his house and an oak tree about 30" in diameter had fallen long ways on it and just crushed it. We were without power for 13 days but thankfully we had water. While I still enjoy tracking hurricanes and they still fasinate me I NEVER want to ge though that again. (didn't want to go though it the first time either)

Keith

[Jim Cantore]

Ivan was a horrible storm one of the all time worst maybe

I feel for everyone who dealt with it and hope they finish picking up the pieces and hope even more that they dont get hit AGAIN

[deltadog03]

living near macon,ga then...we had a ton of rain, SVR wx, and had winds sustained at 40-45....highest gust was around 55...trees powerlines down as well...

[mobilebay]

Lost several trees in my yard. Was without power for 10 DAYS. That was the longest 10 days of my life!

[docjoe]

The thing I remember most from Ivan was the sound of the wind. It wasnt just how loud it was but that it sounded big if that makes sense. It could be felt in your chest like the loud bass at a concert. Although my house did ok (Dennis came along to take care of that though ) it shook like a tuning fork. You could hear the trees snapping and objects banging into the house and into the plywood. From around 1230AM through about 4AM it just never stopped. Also at 330AM I heard my alarm system beep (it has a battery back up) I figured either a window was blown out or a door blew open. My french doors, which were deadbolted, were bowed inward. Right as I got to them they blew open. I caught them and shut them. It took a couch, a love seat, the dining room table, and 3 chairs to keep it shut against the wind. However the moment I will never forget was looking outside the next morning. I had 25 trees down and up to 7 feet of water in my yard from the creek. It was scary because I could not imagine what must have happened at the beaches and closer to the water. That first look and sinking feeling will stick in my mind forever.

docjoe

[Ivanhater]

The thing I remember most from Ivan was the sound of the wind. It wasnt just how loud it was but that it sounded big if that makes sense. It could be felt in your chest like the loud bass at a concert. Although my house did ok (Dennis came along to take care of that though ) it shook like a tuning fork. You could hear the trees snapping and objects banging into the house and into the plywood. From around 1230AM through about 4AM it just never stopped. Also at 330AM I heard my alarm system beep (it has a battery back up) I figured either a window was blown out or a door blew open. My french doors, which were deadbolted, were bowed inward. Right as I got to them they blew open. I caught them and shut them. It took a couch, a love seat, the dining room table, and 3 chairs to keep it shut against the wind. However the moment I will never forget was looking outside the next morning. I had 25 trees down and up to 7 feet of water in my yard from the creek. It was scary because I could not imagine what must have happened at the beaches and closer to the water. That first look and sinking feeling will stick in my mind forever.

docjoe

wow, your experience sounds very close to mine

[Guest]

We lost several trees and shingles and without power for several days, however it did not compare to what our family and friends in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and especially Pensacola suffered. We cannot stress here in Mobile how lucky we were that we dodged a direct hit. Memories of Frederic haunt most Mobilians til this day, imagine a storm with sustained winds of 132 gusting over 140 with the storms forward motion between 8 to 10 miles an hour. I can remember the howling wind and stress it produced like it was yesterday. However, Ivan was as strong if not stronger. My Aunt in Cantonment, Fl. (north of Pensacola) lost over 20 big pines and a friend of ours that has a business down near Port of Pensacola lost his business to the surge.

[ktulu909]

Not to detract from the seriousness of the peoples stories above,but here is my Ivan Experience.

I got in car and left my house.26 hours later I was at my destination that was a whopping 300 miles away.It didnt even rain at my house.

Does indeed make me think a little harder about leaving,but the stories above just about make me feel comfortable doing it again.

[yzerfan]

We were very lucky.

We were part of the 2% of Okaloosa County that never even lost power for the storm, or cable, water, and phone for that matter either. Hurray for German developers who over-engineer the town underground utilities network. And since cloud cover wasn't too bad, Directv was still working even when the winds were howling. Which in some ways made the whole experience even more bizarre.

There was a point somewhere around 2:00am where it was going bad enough in Pensacola that the newscasters on WEAR channel 3 were talking about how they were hoping that someone out there was still hearing their broadcasts because their tv transmission tower wasn't working anymore, and the were getting reports that almost all of their radio rebroadcasters save one had gone off the air as well. (they were still sending out a cable signal so that the maybe 10,000 people in a huge region that still had power could get the broadcast) It was eerie just how isolated it all felt- the darkness, the tv crew desperately hoping they were still getting their message out. A powerful sense that we were so very alone in the world as the storm slowly made landfall.

We were lucky again when the worst storm damage we got was a slight dent in the ridge vent from the pine tree that fell on our garage roof. And I'll remember the clean-up. My area is pretty heavily wooded, so even with the brush trucks hauling storm debris off dawn to dusk, there were still many days where you looked down my road and it was like a tunnel- the entire border between road and lawn (I'd say curb area, but we don't have curbs) was lined with brush piles that were sometimes as tall or taller than my 5'9" self. Street after street like that.

It was like up North when the snow plows come through after a blizzard and push the snow piles along the sides of the road, but it was wood instead of snow.

[pcola girl]

Anyone who has lived through ivan please tell me your experiences.

I live on the west side of Pensacola (2.2 miles from upper Perdio Bay as the crow flies). The power went out about 8:30 and was out for 13 days. We had no phone service for 12 days. No water for 3 days. I'm a native and have been through many previous hurricanes, but none compared to this. We had never lost water or phone service before. Kept praying for landfall on the MS/AL line but about 10:30 watching my battery powered tv found out that was not to be. About 11:30 the water I had drawn in my tub and the water in the toilet was sucked out. Things started getting very bad about 12:30 until 4:30 with absolutely no let up. The noise level of the wind was unbelievable and the crashing of things outside was constant. About daylight the next morning I stepped outside to a new world I will never forget. Trees were down everywhere including an 85 foot pine tree in my front yard that I didn't even hear fall. Thank God it fell away from the house but fell across the driveway and front yard trapping us at home. What trees were left had few branches and no leaves. You could not get out of my neighborhood because of trees blocking all roads. Water was standing in the yard for days. Of the 5 Mobile/Pensacola tv stations, only 1 had a signal. Only a couple of the many radio stations had a signal. We didn't even know about the I10 bridge until the next day. I could go on but you get the general idea. Was I scared? Scared to death, but told myself it was ok to be scared. Would I stay and go through it again? Yes.

[Byrd]

We live 120 miles north of Mobile. Our neighborhood is (was?) full of old trees, and many of them came down. A few houses down, two cars were smashed by falling oaks, and two of our neighbors had to have my husband chainsaw trees out of their driveways.

We have a camphouse on the Black Warrior River a few miles away, and big trees fell everywhere except on the house.

A friend who lives on Ono Island (Orange Beach area) came up here to escape, and was amazed, as we all were, at the amount of damage this far north.

Her house had extensive damage, and she had just moved back in shortly before Dennis came calling. She had better luck this time, as did our town!

Byrd