We escaped the horror of the storm itself (whose official landfall, as I recall, was September 16 at Gulf Shores, AL - correct me if I'm wrong, Jim) by evacuating three hours east to Tallahassee, where we didn't even lose power.
But then we couldn't get back home to Pensacola Beach to see first hand -- not just from disheartening aerial photos circulating on the Web -- what the storm had actually done to our property, much less perform any necessary remediation, because (1) there were absolutely no accommodations available in the area, due not only to evacuees and the immediate huge influx of power repair and tree service people, but also because many if not most of the hotels themselves were damaged and/or without power; and (2) we were not even allowed to set foot back on our own barrier island for two weeks (not that our house was inhabitable).
It was a long time after that before power and water were restored to the island, and this didn't even really matter to us because we basically didn't have a house left to power up. It was so badly damaged that it had been condemned.
For us, Ivan was a traumatic nightmare that lasted for nine months, because that's how long it took for us to repair (with one of the very, very few contractors available) and get back into our home, whose entire interior had been trashed by wind and rain due to total collapse of a high south-facing wall and breaching of part of a roofline.
The 12-15 ft. storm surge had taken with it every single thing in our lowest (garage) level, but that was the least of our own problems, since the main structure was on pilings. For us, the wind was the thing. For others in older, ground level cottages, there was simply nothing left but an empty lot once the water receded. We had never, ever before realized the awesome power of surge.
We moved back home on June 4, 2005, and about four weeks later, on July 10, Dennis came roaring through, forcing another evacuation. You may imagine the stress. This time it 'only' took two weeks to get back into our home -- just long enough for power to be restored to the island - but, thanks to a long-lasting 90 mph north wind during the height of the storm -- which this time had come ashore just to our east on Santa Rosa Island - we had significant damage to our brand new interior -- cracks in the north wall sheet rock, and a partially trashed home office thanks to a neighbor's 6x6 porch beam which had flown across the road and sliced through our siding like butter, bouncing around the room and destroying yet more fresh sheet rock on walls and celing, damaging brand new furniture, and destroying a large mirrored closet door. Still, we were relieved to be able to live in the house while repairing it - a vast improvement over the long displacement from Ivan.
My husband, who is not the beach person in the family, made me promise that if anything like Ivan ever happened again we would leave the island. I live in a certain amount of fear of just that -- all season, every season. Is it worth it? Easy to say yes, after seven years of no severe hits. The answer, however, could change tomorrow. |