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20 Years Later: Ivan The Terrible
September 16, 2024
It’s one of those moments in life that Gulf Coast residents will never forget.
It was September 16, 2004 at 1:50 a.m.
Powerful Hurricane Ivan made landfall just west of Gulf Shores as a Category 3 Hurricane 20 years ago today.
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).
For a photo gallery, click here.
Hurricane Ivan may rival the magnitude of damage and destruction caused by the Hurricane of 1926 which ravaged the counties east of Mobile Bay. Damage was estimated near $14 billion dollars.
As a major characteristic of most landfalling hurricanes, Ivan’s maximum surface winds occurred within the right front quadrant of the storm (or northeast of Ivan’s center given the orientation of approach in this case) just prior to and after landfall.
The worst storms and some of the highest inland winds on that northeast corner of the monster storm’s eyewall impacted the North Escambia area. On the edge of the eye, the raging winds stopped for a moment, rapidly changing directions with a vengeance. (Pictured left: A hand drawn NWS image shows the estimate eyewall path. Pictured below article: A radar image from 4 a.m. shows the heaviest storms and the edge of the eyewall over North Escambia.)
As we all ventured outside after daybreak, the winds were still strong, and we were met with images we’ll never forget. Trees were down everywhere. Homes were damaged or completely destroyed. Destruction everywhere.
Seven people in Escambia County died as the direct result of Hurricane Ivan, and one person lost their life in Santa Rosa County.
A trucker died when massive waves destroyed a section of the Escambia Bay Bridge.
As soon as there was life, the members of the farming community went to work with tractors and equipment in the Walnut Hill area, clearing the major roads and cleaning up ahead of power crews. It would take those power crews from across the county a good week, sometimes two weeks or more, to restore power in North Escambia.
A peak wind gust of 107 mph was recorded at NAS Pensacola, 101 mph at the Pensacola airport. There were no official weather stations reporting in North Escambia at the time. Many weather stations lost phone and data communications well in advance of the peak winds. But Ivan was more than just hurricane winds with numerous tornadoes inland and a destructive storm surge of several feet at the coast.
Ivan dumped 15 or more inches of rain in portion of Baldwin and Escambia (FL) counties, including the North Escambia area.
For a photo gallery, click here.
The came the cleanup — mountains of debris in front of homes, endless debris trucks, and a staging and burn area on Nine Mile Road.
Data sources: National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center.
Photo sources: Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, USGS, NOAA, NASA, National Weather Service Mobile, Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, State Library and Archives of Florida. FEMA, State of Florida and more…
Comments
8 Responses to “20 Years Later: Ivan The Terrible”
Ivan is one of those defining moments in our life much like 9/11.
I’d never thought I’d see food lines but after Ivan I saw people lined up at a Baptist Association food kitchen. The one gas station in town that had a generator their pumps blew over.
I can still point to scars on the land left from the storm.
I was working at the paper mill back then .lt was totally shut down with no power.l was put on 12 hr. midnights after the storm . Lots of fun trying to sleep in the daytime with chainsaws and generators running everywhere and no A/C.
We were living in a duplex off 9 mile road. My husband and I huddled in the hallway with our dog as the door rattled and the windows shook. Worst I’ve ever been through. I’ll never forget the huge mounds of debris piled on the baseball fields on 9 mile road
We lost our metal barn and many other structure damage on our property. But the storm left us two angel images above my terminal brothers bed as a reminder of life. I cut the angels down in Ensley and brought them to our Molino house. Will send pic to North Escambia.
They are 4′ and 2′ across
That was 3 long weeks without power, but we made it.
Honestly, my family and I have lived at this address for 44 years and have been impacted by several Hurricanes over that period of time. Ivan was the worst, so far. Getting up after that beating was like going out into a landscape that had survived a bombing attack. Something you will never forget.
Before Ivan, you could insure a 3br/2ba house for $300/year.
tore up everything