Hurricane Ivan
Posted by Stuart at 05:36 PM on September 16, 2004Another undercurrent of my past week has been preparing for my trip back to America in October. Now that Piyawat has his visa (a 10-year visa, amazingly enough) we are ready to go. I will be cashing in some United Miles for this trip, which will definitely help out because the rest of the trip will be very expensive.
The plan, as I mentioned before, is to drive from San Francisco to North Carolina in a big U-Haul truck. It's going to be a long, but fun 2 weeks, I hope.
One of the stops we are planning on making is in Florida to visit my sister. Right now as I type this, she (and the rest of that part of the country) is getting hit very hard by Hurricane Ivan. I talked to her a bit last night and she is in good spirits.
(Click here for a big picture of the current radar.)
In any case, it will be interesting to go to Pensacola and to visit the beach. Who knows what will be left of it, because at this very moment, it is under about 15 feet of swirling, churning sea water. When I lived through Hurricane Fredrick in 1979, I remember going out to the completely flat beach that had huge sand dunes to play on just the day before. It was a shocking sight.
WOW! Just as I am typing this, I got an email from my sister. She is taking refuge at her boyfriend's office, which is in an old department store. It should be very safe there. This is what she said:
The worst of it, before the eye of the storm, is hitting us right now. Roofs are starting to leak, however structuring on a whole, things are okay. Elevator is broken, security systems is down (which means that no telling how long we will be here). Cell phones still seem to be working, at least for the time being.Once this has passed ... looking to get back to tropical storm force winds, probably by late tomorrow afternoon .... it's going to be, I'm afraid, devastating for many, many people from Mobile to Pensacola, then pretty gosh darn terrible to the west and east of us. We won't know until tomorrow, possibly Friday.
My thoughts and prayers go out to her and all the others who are laying low and waiting for Mother Nature to take her course.
Ditto the prayers and thoughts for your sister and all those caught up in Ivan and his predecessors and those yet to come, wherever they are.
Yeah, we only got 80 mph sustained winds with 120 mph gusts in Ft. Walton. My parents still live in the same place and they said Solutia (nee Monsanto) had 142 mph gusts! They lost a bunch of trees, but they made out okay.
I lost power for 5 days. If I had a generator and the internet, I think I could've tolerated it a bit better. :)
The I-10 bridge eastbound was almost completely washed out, as was a good stretch of 98 in Destin.
For some good pics, visit the Pensacola News-Journal's site.
Lata.
The most recent news --- other than it looks like a war zone down here (not as bad today as it was Friday of last week) .... Hurricane Ivan that hit us has made a loop back around into the Gulf, and is now Tropical Storm Ivan, to make landfall in Texas/Louisiana sometime within the next day or two. Once it hits land, the projected forecast has it making a curve to the southwest .... wouldn't be surprised if it, from there, came back into the Gulf out from Mexico ..... hopefully not.
Progress is being made here, though. Electricity is being restored, trash is beginning to be picked up (yeah ---- stttiiinnnkkkyy .... peeeewwwww - I had the misfortune to get stuck behind a trash truck the other morning .... sour, stale, week old trash that is leaking out of the back of the truck --- doesn't go very well with the morning java on the way to the office), water and phones are also being restored. Thankfully, my house is fully operational as of yesterday. :-)
National Guard, vists from Gov. Bush and his brother, Pres. Bush ..... MREs, blocks of ice, canned food, and water have been the staples of thousands of households the past week. Last night, however, we were a fortunate few ..... we did treat ourselves to dinner out at the Bone Fish Grill.
Quite a surreal experience. Here we were tired, exhausted, bodies aching, just wanting a hot meal that someone else cooked ... to be waited on .... at a fairly upscale restaurant .... oh what a concept.
Arrived, sat down ... looked around. Everyone was coifed, showered and shaved, clothes ironed, sipping on wine, dipping warmed bread in olive oil with a hint of seasoning, conversing with family and friends ...... It was as though we walked into another realm - a universe separate from the outside world. For many there, I'm sure it was a comforting getaway ... for us we thought, "man it's noisy in here .... too many people .... please bring my food so I can get home."
Life has yet to be "normal" even when partaking in activities that 2 weeks ago would have been a no brainer.
Thanks for the update, Beth. I am so glad to know that you made it through the storm safely and without too much damage to your house. I know not everyone was as lucky as you!
I don't think you have much to worry about. By now, Florida has been hit with enough storms to know the recovery routine. I'm sure by the time you get here, there won't be much of a mess. New Orleans, on the other hand... I'm hearing rumors it might not survive this storm. We'll see how that goes, but Florida will be alright.
-J.