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Monday Was The 15th Anniversary Of Hurricane Ivan
September 16, 2019
Hurricane Ivan made landfall 15 years ago Monday near Gulf Shores at 1:50 a.m. By 4:01 a.m, the right front eyewall, the worst of Ivan at time, was near Walnut Hill in North Escambia (radar image above).
Ivan packed 120 mph sustained surface winds and a historic storm surge, the magnitude and extent of the damage and destruction over Baldwin County in Alabama and Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in northwest Florida exceeded that of both Hurricane Frederic (September 1979) and Hurricane Opal (October 1995).
A total of eight deaths in the western Florida Panhandle — seven in Escambia County and one in Santa Rosa County — were the direct result of Hurricane Ivan. Damage was estimated near 14 billion dollars.
A buoy south of Dauphin Island recorded a wave height of 52 feet before the buoy went missing. The peak wind gust recorded in Pensacola Naval Air Station was 107 mph, while the Pensacola airport recorded 101 mph. No surface wind observations were available from North Escambia in Florida or Escambia County in Alabama; an estimated 80-100 mph or greater winds near Ivan’s center caused major tree and structural damage.
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16 Responses to “Monday Was The 15th Anniversary Of Hurricane Ivan”
another one is coming. and it will be worse.
I must say its the worst one ive been in…I was in Fredrick…opal..erin…but this one my my my…I was working at holiday inn on the beach…and when we was finally allowed to go over there…it was ten feet of sand on the first floor…the front desk was across the street…ect..ect…don’t want to see that ever again…
A bunch of family and friends stayed in my parent’s basement. I was barely watching the reports on a battery operated TV. After the storm is when accidents happen with people breaking out the ladders and chain saws – be extra careful.
Then, as others described, there is a general cooperation among neighbors to help out. Some neighbors may have never met before the storm. I supposed that could be considered a good thing, but I still don’t want a tree through my house.
I wonder if that 52 ft wave also destroy all those homes in Perdido. Yes it was a bad storm, Pensacola had so many blue roofs. Never forget the tornado that came close to my house. I was lucky, but I know a lot that wasn’t. Yes it was bad no power or water for days. Memories!
I will never,ever forget that,it took us,and many others a long time to recover,we had about fifty trees down,but the house not to bad,everyone says the trees were a buffer,we did need a new roof as many many hundreds also needed…… we were without Power for more than two weeks.It humbled many of us….and we all pulled together,and we survived that was all that counted.Life!
@ Anne 1of 2
Anne you said it all except when the power came back on my neighbors went back to their homes and vanished. No red lights no gas lots of traffic.
Oh,my,yes,Ivan was a raging menace!!!! We lost three bedrooms,half a roof,swimming pool was full of the biggest oak tree we had…..my daughter and her family,which included an 8 week old,with a new mommy clutching him with grasped arms!!! We had to pry her arms from him to try and control her!!! The other two youngins slept through until the tree hit all the bedrooms…we had to get them out and into the kitchen,under a table,with water pouring in!!! in the morning,we gasped to realize how close the limbs were to the kids in the beds!!!They were very close to us,too,and it was truly remarkable how God had protected all of us,getting away from them without them piercing through our bodies!!! To God Be All The Glory!!!!!!!
Ivan brought a whole new way of living for a few weeks. The brightest stars are out every night. We don’t see them because of all the lighting. Quiet, what a wonderful thing when I don’t own a generator. Window breeze at night. I had forgotten life without air conditioning. What a great excuse for grilling out every night, neighbors became best friends. It was a wonderful time
I will never forget the day before landfall when I bragged how we made it through Hurricane Frederick many years before and this would be the same…HOW WRONG AND STUPID WAS I. We lost power just before landfall and we thought it was still on the same projected course. I did not buy a radio with batteries to monitor the storm. DUMB! DUMB! DUMB! Unknown to us Ivan had made a turn Northeast. Hours into landfall I kept telling my wife and children huddled behind our couch it will pass soon. All the while I was asking myself WHY is it getting WORSE? WHY IS IT GETTING STRONGER? The walls were shaking, and it felt at times like they were breathing in and out. Later I was told it was from the various tornadoes passing by. We lived in Cantonment near Booth Field at that time. Pecan trees were falling on all sides of our small home. We had no idea just how close the eastern eye wall was passing by us. I thought I would lose my family that night. Slowly it began to subside and soon we and all our neighbors walked outside in disbelief. Then we came together on our little street and helped each other. We struggled to clear the street, then the next until we could get to Hwy 29. We shared food, water and our emotions. After couple days we made our way to the long gas lines HOPING for gas each day. Just when we thought it was over Ivan circling back around and we feared IVAN was going to hit us again. I could go on, but I just wanted to share my memory. We vowed NEVER to stay for a CAT 3 or higher again.
We evacuated during Ivan. Good thing because my Scenic Heights home took a hit from a tornado and a HUGE pine tree was lying across my bed. If I’d been in it, I’d have been killed. As it was, we only lost things. It was a crazy, stressful time for all of us, though. We still all pulled together and helped each other out, which is a good memory to have about a bad time in Pensacola’s history.
Huge limbs fell all around, but missed my house, the sound of wet, shredded leaves hitting the windows and the wind howling as the worst came through are what sticks in my mind of the actual storm. The line crews busting their humps to get the power on, the national guard going through neighborhoods to distribute MRE’s and water as well as checking on people’s welfare and people coming together helping to clear limbs off neighbor’s houses are the best memories. Events like these always brings out both the best and the worst in people. I choose to honor the best.
The way the community came together, the local government organization and response was in stark contrast to Katrina. It’s hard to forget how fundamentally decent that people can be.
52 foot high wave! Wonder if that was what destroyed the I-10 bridge and the fishing pier?
no water, electricity, trees down everywhere. a bad time.
Cantonment, Florida, Trailwood Dr…. I was letting my dog out for one last time as the rain was just starting. I spotted a Ferret out in the yard. It ran up to me and I took it back in the house. It played with my dog (and then the dogs toys) until I finally locked it in the dogs kennel so we could get some sleep. The next morning I went out to inspect our damage when my new neighbor came out. I asked him how he did… He said, “We lost our Ferret last night.” I was thrilled to give the little thing back to him.
We have a park that runs through our neighborhood on Trailwood Dr. Lots of trees. All the ones that fell managed to fall away from the houses. A lot of the homes had screened in porches. All seem to make it through the storm. One neighbor was cutting down a broken limb from his tree when it fell on his screened in porch, smashing the porch. Porch survived the storm only to be done in by the owner….
Yes, Ivan did major damage in our area, I work at the local electric cooperative, of course we had major outages. My biggest and best memory is the unity of the community and everyone pitching in to help the best they could. Either by coming out with chainsaws, handing out waters, or cooking for each other while others had to work long hours. That’s the lasting memories!!