One Year Since Hurricane Ivan

Today marks our one-year anniversary since Hurricane Ivan came through our area as a Category 4 storm.  When I visit the Katrina-affected areas, I am reminded of Ivan over and over.  It's pretty much the same devastation, only Katrina's damage is over a much, much larger area.  And houses didn't entirely disappear on the beach with Ivan, as they did in Waveland, Mississippi (Katrina's Ground Zero). 

Still, Ivan was and is a big deal to us on the Florida Panhandle and East of Mobile Bay in Alabama.  For this entire past year, I have been able to hear the sounds of the wind and the horizontal rain and the cracking and felling of tree after tree.  And the transformers popping like fireworks.  I still see his destruction every time I look into our back yard and see broken branches dangling high in the cedar trees. I remember him when I walk down to the river in our backyard and see the 20 trees that a tornado spawned by Ivan took out, only a 1/2 acre away from our house where we were with our four children. 

Ivan was a huge beast, so we were under his fury for a full 36 hours.  He was America's largest hurricane in size, dwarfed only by Katrina (she was so huge, she made Ivan look somewhat small).  That was a long time to be  under tropical storm and hurricane weather.  Our five-year-old, who was four at the time and slept through the worst of the storm, still wonders if a hurricane is coming every time it is windy.  He's not afraid of it; he just wants to know. 

The people of Mississippi and Louisiana have a very long road ahead of them.  I don't think they realize how long, but that is probably for the best.  In Pensacola, Florida, there are still  piles of debris being mulched and trucked out.  Every hotel room is still full of workers, and the houses prices are still at record highs.  Books-a-Million is still closed; one hospital is still not repaired from its 10-stories of windows being blown out; many homes still have blue tarps on them. 

But we are healing.  Most stores are now open.  The trees are pruned severely, but are trying to leaf out (Hurricane Dennis came in July 2005, a Cat. 2, and messed things up a bit again).  The mountain (I really do mean "mountain" of debris at the airport is finally almost gone.  The streets are almost cleared of trash and debris.  The beach is partially opened.  Our city is going to be fine.   

Tonight, the city of Pensacola is having a "Community Remembers Ivan" service.  There will be several mayors and others from Missisippi who are coming to the service.  They said, "We want to see that there is hope a year later." 

Yes, there is hope. 

9:00 PM - Sep. 16, 2005 - post comment