Hurricane!

Excuse me, while I open a space in the political discussion to point out something beyond the primaries on Tuesday - a powerful series of thunderstorms ripped through the Mid-South with tornadoes that killed at least 54 people and injured hundreds. They have been promised help by George W. Bush, which I can tell you as someone who lives in an area struck by hurricane Ivan in 2004 and knows what the Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas Gulf Coast still looks like after Katrina and Rita in 2005, is not going to happen any time soon.

When I think about fondue, one memory always emerges first; not a particularly happy one, but intense and meaningful. The year was 2004. Hurricane Ivan was devastating Grand Cayman. I sat in a little Chamonix restaurant overlooking the river Arve and with sublime Mont Blanc towering right above me.

Earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis/tidal waves, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions tend to be cyclical. People living in areas where these things may frequent and/or occur, relatively speaking can sometimes live an entire lifetime and never experience any of the above and this often leads to a sense of complacency. In the past few years, areas that had not experienced a direct hit from a hurricane for a generation or more were given painful reminders. Hurricane Ivan clobbered the Caribbean island of Grenada in September of 2004. At the time, the people of Grenada could barely remember what a hurricane felt like.

At around 2am September 16, 2004, Hurricane Ivan slammed ashore just west of Gulf Shores. A 13-18 ft storm surge brought massive destruction to the Alabama and Florida coast. The hardest hit areas included Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Grand Lagoon (FL), Pensacola Beach, Milton, Pensacola Bay and Navarre. I will never, ever forget all of the events surrounding this storm.

I got a letter from the city telling me if I didn't clean up a property I own that was totally destroyed by Hurricane Ivan, they would clean it up for me and put a lean on said property until I paid the cost of the clean up. What they fail to understand is that I'm letting this property go back to a wilderness. You know... hap-hazard trees and grass with no rhyme or reason. What part of wilderness do they not understand? And what do they have against nature anyway? So I have to hire someone and pay a small fortune to have it cleaned up before the city does. They gave me 8 days to do it. TCHF will be home in 10. Fun. Fun. Fun.

A 70-footer washed over the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship last year, a nearly-100-footer was reported in 2004 during Hurricane Ivan, and there have been reliable measurements of a 112-foot (34-meter) wave that rose over the USS Ramapo in 1933. Could there have been bigger waves that people didn't survive to tell about? Maybe so: In "The Bird in the Waterfall," Jerry Dennis and Glenn Wolff report that computer models can produce theoretical waves as high as 219 feet (67 meters).

Anyways, getting back to my original topic, TMM was still a nice place to drive even as the population grew though the years into my young adulthood. I didn't mind trips to the beach (either the east beach or the more westerly one--close to Alabama's beaches) because we never had clogged up traffic on the bridge except for a few times when there was a car crash or a vehicle had broken down. And most importantly, people were more courteous. And it had remained that way well up until the recent past 2 years, maybe earlier than then, but after Hurricane Ivan, it seemed like everything went to hell....

The year before, we faced a similar dilemma on a smaller scale, as local media pounded us for shelter information and updates with Hurricane Ivan. We got around that issue by pushing the assignment desks and producers to a page on our website that was updated every hour. We even pushed that information to police departments and other dispatch agencies to use as an online resource for people calling from the evacuation routes. It worked like a charm, and within a half-day our incoming media traffic was again manageable.

Here’s a panoramic photo Al took of the damage from Hurricane Ivan [summer before last] still being repaired [click on the picture for a full-size image (1.5 Mb)].

As we see with the slow reconstruction in the US following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, critical infrastructure is often overlooked or overshadowed by other needs, and the consequences of that oversight will be unrealized until another disaster occurs. In South Asia, the tsunami detection system should take priority, and yet the countries can't agree on how a regional system would operate. So, a piecemeal approach is going forward with predictable mixed results. Those countries that field better systems will be better capable of warning their populations should another tsunami occur. A nation that deploys a less sophisticated system may end up costing lives.

So we're paying for people to rebuild their expensive homes in flood-prone areas, just so they can be hit with another hurricane and get knocked over again?

How is this not welfare for rich people?

Its moving through Georgia and Alabama as a tropical depression WSW direction. One thing to always be vigilant is whether the system takes a southerly turn and enters the Gulf and gets recharged ala Hurricane Ivan did last year when it whomped the Gulf Coast twice after meander its way in the southeast. It did more damage on the second go around than the first time I believe because it caught everyone off-guard.

According to an article by U.S.A. Today, one South Florida businessman thinks he has a winning idea — flying a Boeing 747 into the monster storm, where it would hit it with tons of super absorbent powder, literally sucking it dry and breaking it apart. Only a test will determine if it is a flight of fantasy, and there are no plans to try the process on the approaching Hurricane Ivan. But businessman Peter Cordani, chief operating officer of Dyn-O-Mat, a company that sells environmental absorbent products, thinks he can knock down a storm by one or two categories. He claims to have caused a thunderstorm to disappear in a test off Palm Beach, and he's assembled a team including two former astronauts to work on the plan. "We have a lot of confidence in it," said Scott Mac Leod, one of the astronauts who tested the lunar module.

This article is so scary. It was written in November of 2004 and talks about what Hurricane Ivan, a category 4 storm, would have done to New Orleans. Well, they nailed it right on. Read this and it will make you cringe.

Katrina revved up to a maximum Category 5 hurricane at the weekend, far stronger than last year’s Hurricane Ivan, which tore up platforms and pipelines along a very similar path through the Gulf, disrupting oil production for months.

Which is why this report on a monster wave created by Hurricane Ivan freaks my shit out big time.

Another CD has come to Hebdeneye with a request for a review. It’s another electronica creation and it’s creator is Hebden Bridge resident Richard Dalby. It’s for the Grenada Appeal which some of our local musicians are into (Hurricane Ivan, stupid) and includes some live recordings from a recent benefit gig.

Storm? So, I did a quick Google and found out that Hurricane Dennis Nears Jamaica. Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba are keeping an eye on the first Hurricane of 2005... with Hurricane Ivan's devastation easily remembered in 2004.

Less than nine months after Hurricane Ivan ripped through the Florida Panhandle and Gulf Coast, Tropical Storm Arlene pummeled the same stretch of low lying shoreline Saturday, bringing 60 mph winds, drenching rains and the threat of tornadoes.

Tropical Storm Arlene weakened as it blew ashore Saturday on the Gulf Coast, but still packed enough punch that it brought sheets of rain, 20-foot waves and heavy wind to the same area that was devastated by Hurricane Ivan nine months ago.

Today is the official beginning of hurricane season. As usual, an active season is predicted. Hopefully, Louisiana is better prepared this time. Greater New Orleans actually had an evacuation plan in place last year when Hurricane Ivan was bearing down on her. I wouldn�t say the plan was inadequate but its execution surely was. We're talking major traffic jams in every outbound direction but particularly the westbound I-10 towards Baton Rouge. It was taking up to 8 hours for some to make it from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, which normally takes...

Pensacola's location on the Florida Panhandle makes it vulnerable to hurricanes. Major hurricanes which have made landfall at or near Pensacola include Hurricane Juan (1985), Hurricane Opal (1995), and Hurricane Ivan (2004).

During the September floods caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ivan, floodwaters destroyed tea leaves and supplies stored at the warehouse, the lawsuit said. It said the company lost several million dollars because of business interruptions caused by the flood.

No ferry service has run across the mouth of Mobile Bay since Sept. 16, when Hurricane Ivan destroyed the dock on the Fort Morgan side.

Hunker Down.

You hear that phrase on the news all the time when a big storm comes to town. It's not just from this year. I've heard it for years, but it seems to get more popular with every passing year. So just what does it mean?

People use it in conversation without a real knowledge of its definition. I was in a meeting at work when it came up again. We discussed the impending visit of Hurricane Ivan and someone said it was time for us all to hunker down again. The woman on my right looked exasperated and said she was tired of hunkering down. I told her that maybe she's not doing it right.

Arrived in Grenada in the AM. I loved this island so much but I felt so bad for the people there. We took a tour around the island and saw how destroyed the island was due to Hurricane Ivan last summer. Many houses gone, many trees/crops destroyed. We bought some fresh spices and tried so local rum which was about 138 proof.

Well, we have another big storm moving in, so I'll be posting this and getting offline while the lightening and hail tries to score direct hits on what few things of mine Hurricane Ivan left standing. I guess this is all a part of living in Florida...

While we have gained much, the ships, the funding, etc, the losses have also been equally staggering. I have been to the funeral of a close friend and one of our strongest volunteers, have gone through health problems with both my parents (made all the more personal as I am an only child), I have lost everything--house, personal belongings, etc. in Hurricane Ivan, I lost my father to failing health, and all of this in just the last six months. I guess it's true that nothing of consequence is accomplished without paying a personal price.

The Cayman Islands have rebounded from the blow delivered by Hurricane Ivan over seven months ago. Even though you can still the a few remains of the hurricane damage, tourism is now bomming. Tthe capital city of George Town is bustling wth cruise passengers each week, and the traffic on the main streets are often congested. Incoming flights are full, greenery is coming back to the island, and famous Seven Mile Beach is lined with surburned bodies.

ENSCO International Incorporated announced that the Company's jackup drilling rig which was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, ENSCO 64, has been declared a constructive total loss for insurance purposes. The Company expects to receive the $65 million insurance proceeds within the next two weeks, and plans to recognize an after tax gain of approximately $8 million related to this insurance settlement during the second quarter of 2005.

"Due to the high volume of claims from Hurricane Ivan we wanted to provide our customers some relief and help them find solutions," said Larry Pratt, Farmers' Alabama State Executive Director. "We want our customers to get back where they belong as quickly as possible," added Pratt.

Alas, the infamouse Flora-Bama Roadhouse Lounge will be bulldozed because of damage from Hurricane Ivan, Channel 13 News in Birmingham reports. The good news is owners Joe Gilchrist and Pat McClellon vow to rebuild it on the Florida-Alabama state line.

Hurricane Ivan has the last laugh at Uhaul Tool Rentals in Meridian, Miss. Courtesy SF Gate’s Day In Pictures.

A car was crushed by an air conditioner blown off a roof by Hurricane Ivan in Pensacola, Florida. Courtesy CNN.com.

While we have gained much, the ships, the funding, etc, the losses have also been equally staggering. I have been to the funeral of a close friend and one of our strongest volunteers, have gone through health problems with both my parents (made all the more personal as I am an only child), I have lost everything--house, personal belongings, etc. in Hurricane Ivan, I lost my father to failing health, and all of this in just the last six months. I guess it's true that nothing of consequence is accomplished without paying a personal price.

The remnants of Hurricane Ivan swept through the area almost seven months ago, but effects from the devastating rains still are being felt.

Andrew Clark, executive director of Adventist Communities Services based in Great Southern Shopping Center, Bridgeville, expects to keep open a distribution center for donations for up to two more years.

To date, Clark said, the group, sponsored by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, has helped more than 700 families affected by the floods and an additional 50 families in need of clothing and small appliances.

I just returned from a week visiting my mom in Pensacola, Florida. Nearly 6 months after Hurricane Ivan came ashore in Mobile Bay, it is astounding the level of devistation still evident everywhere. It will take several years to cleanup and several more to rebuild. Many of the poor were uninsured and FEMA moves very slowly bringing relief to the hardest hit. It would be difficult to comprehend how this type of destruction could occur in our State. It would take 25 or 30 tornados at the same time to create the damage...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) – The black-and-white painted faces of the rock band Kiss peer from the roof of Dana Morris’ home in suburban Gulf Breeze. In Pensacola, Allan Weaver’s auto repair shop is topped with an ad for a plumbing service. They are among the first victims of Hurricane Ivan to take advantage of an offer from Lamar Advertising Co. to use vinyl billboard ads as roof tarps until owners can get permanent repairs.

When Hurricane Ivan ripped through Longleaf last September, it reshaped the landscape in so many ways. An old deer blind hut that used to be hidden from sight is now visible, just barely, from the house. There's a long clearing in front of it, still grassy, surrounded by thick pines and hardwoods.

The March 25 deadline, set by the Alabama Department of Insurance for insurers to settle Hurricane Ivan-related claims or report to the department why they have not been settled, has passed and according to a DoI spokesman, unsettled cases are being tallied with insurers “on-the-clock” to pay the claims within 30 days.

New findings show Hurricane Ivan caused massive erosion of beaches, dunes and barrier islands along the Gulf Coast and underscore how vulnerable the American coastline is to hurricanes.

Hanners is talking about one of the many houses his family ownes. It's also one of the many homes they lost during Hurricane Ivan.

Some of the roads damaged by slides caused when remnants of Hurricane Ivan tore through Washington and Greene counties last September soon will be repaired.

Grand Cayman was hit hard last fall by Hurricane Ivan. Evidence of the hurricane's destructive force is everywhere. Many of the trees on the island were knocked down, and those still standing lean to the west. Many hotels and businesses are still closed, and some roads remain closed for repair. Turtle Reef used to be home to a large school of tarpon that would hang out in an underwater grotto and part like a curtain when you swam through them. Alas, the tarpon left with the hurricane, but Turtle Reef still has more than its share of Parrotfish and other colorful Caribbean denizens. Today we saw a barracuda and a stingray.

Six months after Hurricane Ivan's landfall over Gulf Shores, residents remain homeless. The oyster population largely is decimated. The state and businesses along the shore stand to lose millions of dollars in revenue, and repairs still are under way.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has appointed a 19-member task force to study insurance issues. The move follows months of complaints related to Hurricane Ivan recovery and a decision by one firm to end wind coverage for some homeowners.

PENSACOLA, Fla. Hurricane Ivan is forcing a second wave of people from their homes six months after it hit.

Some are leaving because mold has made the buildings health hazards and others who lost their jobs are running out of rent or mortgage money.

Some have also had to leave rental homes. Landlords haven't repaired the damage because they lack insurance, plan to make other use of the property or are delaying so they can charge higher rents after tenants leave.

About 35 per cent of the 3,388 hotel and condominium rooms on Grand Cayman have reopened to tourists, with a projected increase to 50 per cent by April, according to the Cayman Island Department of Tourism. The island was devastated by Hurricane Ivan last September.

On Friday September 17, 2004, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted an aerial photographic survey of the barrier islands in Alabama and Florida that were impacted by Hurricane Ivan. The photographs have been compared to pre-storm photographs to illustrate extreme coastal change.

The barrier islands exposed to Ivan's strongest winds, for example, the communities of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, AL, are, in places, low lying, their dunes rising up only several meters, which is insufficient to have contained Ivan's storm surge. The Gulf spilled across the islands in a strong current capable of transporting massive amounts of sand landward, undermining buildings and roads, and opening new island breaches. On top of the surge, breaking waves nearly as tall as the water was deep, eroded dunes and battered structures.

Ivan is the currently the third - and largest - hurricane set to strike the US this hurricane season. The swirling eye of Hurricane Ivan was photographed above from the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) as the storm's sustained 200 kilometer per hour winds wreaked havoc in the Caribbean. The bad news is that hurricane season in the Atlantic typically lasts until November 30, over two months from when this picture was taken. The more immediate bad news is that tropical storm Jeanne is next in line coming across the mid-Atlantic Ocean.

Here's a report on Hurricane Ivan and the aftermath way up north in West Virginia.

I am not sure how many of you are aware of he devestating effect that Hurricane Ivan had over the weekend to the interior of the nation, but here are some pictures to give you an idea. My hometown of Bethany, WV, received 9.5 inches of rain in ONE DAY, and we experienced the worst flooding in the memory of our oldest citizens. This was a once a century flood.