Ada’s Diary of Hurricane Ivan (2004)

This is Ada's diary of:

HURRICANE IVAN

We knew when we chose Pensacola as our retirement home, we were in for hurricanes. We have lived in Japan where we'd lived through a typhoon or two and experienced a number of earthquakes of various strengths. I should also mention that a tornado touched down in our Marco Island complex with damaging effects which required a clean-up crew of all the homeowners including our grandson Ryan, who was visiting us from Colorado. None of these experiences can compare with the devastating effects of Ivan.

Nine years ago while living in Summer Lakes Lane subdivision of about 30 newly built homes, we were introduced to a category two hurricane named Erin. We survived with very little damage in August, but then in October we met Opal who came tearing in with more strength and Pensacola was near the eye this time. It was a strong category two this time and left our street a mess. We lost power for a day. No one was hurt, but a lot of cleanup was required. We had a few problems with the chimney, but nothing serious.

We are now residing on the sixth floor (top) of the midrise building of Azalea Trace, a lovely retirement home for approximately five hundred residents. This includes an assisted living and healthcare unit as well as three buildings for independent residents, such as us, who live in Terrace 1, Terrace 11 and our mid-rise. From our apartment we had a scenic view of the Escambia River peeking through a dozen or so beautiful, stately tall pine trees, magnolias and live oaks on our campus which is located next to the University of West Florida campus. What a quiet, serene setting for a couple of Air Force retirees who had seen "it all".

Sept. 14, 2004 Never had we experienced anything as horrible as Ivan the Terrible! We watched its path days ahead as it came violently through the Caribbean demolishing homes by the thousand in Cuba and Jamaica.

We prepared for it! We read the Hurricane instructions pages in our Trace manual, we filled the bath tub with water, made extra ice, bought bottles of water, a hand operated can opener, checked the batteries, candles and matches. We attended the residents meeting in the auditorium two days before Pensacola's destination for Ivan's journey. We even played twenty hands of bridge with the Progressive Bridge Group who met in the Azalea room on the first floor of our mid-rise. We retired early as usual and had a good night's sleep.

Sept 15,2004 At exercise class the next morning where we convened in the Yoga room, we stretched and used our Therabands then went back to our apartments, and listened for the updates on the local news stations, as well as all the coverage on the national news channels. Ivan preempted all the other news.

That evening we had just retired when a knock at the door summoned us to meet at the elevators as we were going to the basement. Our director, the able Carolyn Scott, told us she hoped to have us back in our apartments by 3 a.m. It was approximately 10 p.m. at that time. The three top floors were moved to the basement while the first three floors took refuge on the first floor. We had time to gather reading material and pillows, chairs were already there waiting for us.

Sept. 16,2004. Jane Pauley's new book Skywriting was my companion and it was interesting. I read the entire 280 pages! Bert kept busy catching up on his Time magazine; bridge and skippo players kept busy in various parts of the basement. A few folks brought along their battery operated radios, but reception was poor, so we didn't get much information on what was happening outside. We could hear its frightening roar, and we knew we were in for a long night when 3 a.m. rolled around. We watched the clock ticking each hour, finally at 7a,m. we were allowed to return to our apartments. We didn't know what to expect as we climbed the six flights of stairs.

As we entered our apartment we had good news and bad news. The good news was that the building was still intact, with just damage on the fourth and part of the sixth floor. Our wing of the sixth is okay but the roof of another wing is pealed off, resulting in water damage to some of the apartments in that wing. The bad news far outweighs the good news. Not only the folks whose apartments had some water damage, but the atrium in the main lobby suffered some damage from flying debris, the lobby front door blew out, the swimming pool sky lights tore off and ended up in the pool along with other debris, and outside on the campus we lost dozens of tall pine trees and several magnolia trees.

Sept. 17, 2004. We can't say enough for the care we have been given by the management. We are part of the ACTS Community which has seventeen upscale retirement homes in various cities in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida with headquarters in Philadelphia.(If you like you can find us on the Internet). ACTS started sending help in even before Ivan arrived, and afterwards they added a considerable number of personnel to aid in clearing out the downed trees and other debris. They also contracted with a tree firm from Atlanta which sent a crew with truck and shredder.

How the culinary department is able to provide meals without main power was unbelievable.   We can not use the diningroom so everything is takeout. The following day we had a hot meal plus fruit, beverage, and a bottle of water.

Pensacola's water system shut down so we had to resort to other means. Initially we were able to get water from the swimming pool to use to flush commodes. We have two baths, one with a tub so we had filled that while we still had pressure. Some people just have one bath with a walkin shower so they had to carry water to their apartment when they needed it. If they were on the higher floors that meant carrying a bucket up the stairs as the elevators were limited to one on emergency power. In the smaller buildings they had no elevator operating. Eventually the staff started bringing large containers of pool water up to each floor and parcelling out the water to those in need. Through all of this our camping experience when our sons were young was a plus in our adjustment to our "camping out" in our luxurious retirement home.

Both our sons, Kent in Jacksonville, and Mike in Largo asked us to come stay with them, and we are most grateful to them and their wives for wanting us to be with them. We felt safe here and although it was bound to take a toll on our nerves we felt comfortable staying here, and we counted our blessings.

In a day or two we hope to get out and buy a good radio to learn more about the devastation in Pensacola and the surrounding areas. In the meantime we will check on our less able friends here and assure them we'll survive with God's help. Bert is a 6th floor monitor, making sure the residents are taken care of and informed of any developments. We have also been in touch with Trinity friends who reside here and assured them we are available to help if needed.

In the meantime, we'll shuffle cards, get the bridge table ready for tonight's entertainment under the emergency hall lights in the corridor. More news to follow.

Sept. 18, 2004. After our usual breakfast of cereal, fruit, and juices, we decided to make our rounds checking on friends. Our first stop was to see what Edith Frey, on the fifth floor, needed. Her apartment was quite warm. She had to keep her porch door closed because the storm had twisted the screen into a mess. Bert moved a screen from her bedroom so she would have air; the bedroom sliding door had been forced off its track and could not be opened. After fixing it, we rode the one operating elevator to the basement to put in a work order for repair.

Our friends, Catherine Carrington, Martha Stevenson, and Ada Minnery, were resting comfortably in their rooms at the Assisted Living Center and Health Care Center. Then we stopped to use the one phone available in the main lobby (most other phones were not operating) to call Ada's son and daughter-in-law to assure them that she was being well cared for, and we also called the Litzingers, Shirley and Dick, to no avail. Their phones were still out.

All the support staff are here, and the word is that our water will be restored shortly, so we look forward to our showers later today. We have plenty of drinking water which is delivered to each floor daily. Our tub is still half full, so we have water for flushing when necessary. We've been promised that ice is on the way, but we'll survive even if it doesn't come. We have nothing perishable in the frig-just fruit, juice, soup and bread.

Today's activities include take-out lunch from 11-4, and a residents' meeting at 1 p.m. in the dining room.

Our dear friend, Jane Watson, made a trip to Walgreens and brought us 12 D batteries which we badly needed. Now we have flashlights in every room.

Bert is catching up on all our magazines and I have a new(for me) John Grisham book which I'll get into after our meeting.

The meeting was encouraging. For a Category 4 hurricane, we are fortunate we had no fatalities here, and because of our excellent staff, from our director, Jeff Rock, and all his assistants, everyone is coping well. The critics are always present in situations like this, but they're in the minority. The main thing is we're making progress.

Today we were assured that we will continue to have one substantial meal a day for take-out from 11-4. All buildings have flushing service and drinking water.(Pensacola water is not drinkable at this time). An emergency generator in our building is being worked on at this time and a new one is on its way in from Philadelphia. More ACTS people are arriving daily with power saws and ingenuity. One interesting item Jeff mentioned was that last night one of the ACTS personnel came with cash for all the employees whose checks are somewhere in the mail, and these people are hard pressed for money. Every employee was given $250.00 to tide them over till their checks arrive.

Other encouraging announcements are that there will be a church service tomorrow(Sun) in the dining room at 11:00 and a sing-along at 5 p.m.. Hopefully two ice bags will be delivered to everyone in a day or so. Radio station 88.1 has information on our area around the clock. If we have food that has thawed from the freezer, we are to double bag it and put it outside our door for collection. Our chorus will be meeting Monday at 9 a.m., Yeah! We were given an emergency number, 595-3344, to call in case we have medical problems, this is for the nurse in the Health Center. Everything is looking up. Thank you, God! Now, I'm off to the shower.

Our culinary staff has prepared enough food for us, and although they're not gourmet type meals as we've been having, they are satisfactory. We have one meal a day served 11-4 for take-out. In regular times we have a choice of having lunch or dinner, in the dining room. Today we had beef stew(Dinty Moore's?), a roll, two beverages and a piece of fruit.

The corridor lights provide enough light for us to set up card tables and play bridge. Our neighbors , Irene and Frank Crane, join us for a few rounds. Other residents sit in the halls to read or just socialize. Although the Cranes beat us tonight Bert was the outstanding player, bidding and making a small slam the first hand we played.

There is not much we can do in the dark except get a lot of shut-eye. We retired early, as usual.

Sept. 19, 2004. What a surprise to awaken with two day's editions of the News Journal with pictures and stories of Ivan's wrought written Thursday and Friday. Until today we just got bits and pieces of news on our small battery operated radio. We didn't know of any of the number of deaths in our area, but we weren't surprised that there were eight accounted for so far. A damaged roof, some water damage, uprooted trees, broken glass doors and skylights can be replaced. Lives can’t. That's the extent of damage we had at Azalea Trace. Our apartment escaped.

After reading the next two issues of the News Journal, which are to arrive tonight, I'll summarize the events that took place that damaged most of our county. The papers are being printed in Montgomery, AL.; presses here are not working yet.

Since we've been asked to stay off the streets during the clean-up, we opted for the 11 a.m. church service here rather than attending our regular service at Trinity. Larry Mosley, our Chaplain, spoke to us in the dining room to about 100 people. He is a retired Air Force Chaplain, and experienced many disasters, so his service to us was especially meaningful. He related the story of Job in the Bible-a wealthy man who lost everything-his children, his property, and was afflicted with vast sores all over his body. His cry to God sustained him. He was restored to his former condition with even greater prosperity than before. Larry also talked about the importance of coping and related how well we're making the best of our inconveniences. How can we complain when everyone here is so kind and helpful? Well, we've heard a few complaints, but they're unhappy people and we just have to pray for them. We sang a favorite hymn, one that my mother sighed, when as a youngster, our age old minister's favorite, over did it. Anyhow, when we sang it today, I didn't even have to use the Hymnal. I rejoiced with "Our God, our help in ages past. Our hope for years to come. Our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home".

A little excitement after lunch was seeing Air Force One fly over our home after the Presidents visit to Pensacola. They used the Naval Air Station Sherman Field; the civil airport was closed down. To see something flying overhead besides rescue helicopters was a thrill. The nation knows we are here!

Our 92 year old friend Edith Frey came up for a little chat and a glass of wine. She and I have been Presbyterians since birth and we sang the hymn "Our God........." again.

The News Journal was delivered and we caught up with what's happening. It was the Saturday and Sunday editions, and was delivered from Montgomery. Amazing" The picture depicting the storm were unbelievable. More about that later.

Sept. 20, 2004. Today was a wakening call for the chorus! We were well represented in all sections and Nancy, our choir director, put me in charge to get all the voices in tune while she went searching for music. Our Christmas program was off to a good start.

Another uplifting item was hot coffee in the lounge which I carried back to get Bert on a roll. We located some ice in the basement cooler to keep foods cold, but not for drinking as it’s water from our well which needs to be tested for safety. After a trip to Walgreens and lunch, we were on our way! Phone service restored and a bag of ice from neighbors for drinking. We're among the living again!

Our meal was delicious and we saved part of it for our evening meal as well. It was shrimp etofee(sp.) and chili, plus asparagus, so we made it another day in good spirits.

We made phone calls to Mike, Kent, Gilberts, Millie and Applegates. Tried to get other local friends but apparently their phones were still out of order. Received calls from Bob Tilley and Mike. Mike seemed relieved that we weathering the storm so well.

We set up the bridge table and the Cranes joined us for this evenings entertainment.

Sept.2 1,2004. Today we were awakened at a few minutes before 5 a.m. with the thundering fire alarm, our second time to experience this frightening sound which occurred a few nights ago. (I may have forgotten to mention this one that occurred at 1 a.m.).

Bert is a monitor in our wing, and he reports to the core captain of everyone’s presence. I have to take the clipboard from the fire extinguisher box and check each apartment. If we can't account for someone , their door is red tagged and the fire department is notified for possible evacuation. These fire alarms were false, and for that we are very grateful. Good practice but we pray the real thing never occurs!

Just as I finished my cold shower, power was restored. Hallelujah!! That darn Bert will get a warm shower. We had toasted English muffins with peanut butter and jelly, orange juice and Hot tea and coffee. We beat a path to the laundry room where we washed and dried our bare essentials.

After checking the fifty messages on our computer, Bert is starting to respond as I write the day's events.

Have I mentioned how sad we are to lose our beautiful landscaping? Our large stately pine trees are now being carried away ground up into chips via ACTS large pickup trucks. We hate to see them go, but perhaps we can rejoice getting a better view of the Escambia River. Now we can regain our title of being "River Rats", having grown up on the Ohio River in Wellsville and Cincinnati!

After lunch we drove down to Walgreens to pick up our pictures we'd taken before and after the hurricane. We needed milk and ice so we crossed over to Albertsons, but were delayed for quite a while waiting for a police escorted convoy of about thirty large Asplundh trucks pass through the intersection. Asplndh tree trimmers work with the power and telephone companies. They have months of work to do here.

Albertsons had a large highway trailer full of ice which they were giving away, two large bags to a vehicle, loaded for you by young men. The ice came from Cincinnati, how about that! While Bert stayed with the car I dashed inside and got a gallon of milk. What service!

We were pressed for time because we had a 3 p.m. history lesson. I made it just in time, but Bert was delivering our "treasure" to as many people he could find to share it with.

Our regular Tuesday evening bridge group, usually ten to twelve tables, was cancelled this evening and we were glad because we had a lot of catching up to do reading the News Journal which came as a special treat. More pictures of our disastrous storm!

Sept.22,2004. We're beginning to get our lives back together. Today we joined our exercise routines-two classes of back exercises and Therabands for me in the Yoga room, and Bert's workout in Terrace II gym room.

I was deep into the laundry when the phone rang and it was our friend, Clara Missildine, who needed a ride to West Florida Hospital ER with a heart problem. Bert took her and she stayed there while they ran tests, we picked her up later that evening and brought her back to Azalea Trace. Our Health Care people had her call her doctor who told her to go to ER.

After lunch we had our resident's meeting, a monthly thing, where we were updated on our condition. Newly elected Resident Council officers were introduced at the meeting also. After that I visited our friends in the Health Center and Assisted Living. Bert met with the USAA appraiser regarding damage to both cars. We will get their evaluation soon, and then get estimates for getting the work done. Nothing real serious, mainly dents and scratches on the finish.

Progress in clearing continues.

Sept.23, 2004. The swimming pool has been cleared of the broken glass and metal from the skylights, and reopened. I joined some of my friends for early morning exercises. The water felt good!

After breakfast Bert and I replaced our weekly cleaning lady(their work schedule for cleaning our apartment restarts next week.). I couldn't believe how lazy I’d become in cleaning the cupboards of year old pasta and rice, and all those tired old spices that were taking up space on the shelves and never would be used. Bert tackled the laundry, washing and changing the bed linens. My muscles got a good workout scrubbing the bathrooms. We've really been spoiled with our help here.

We still have not been able to reach our friends Marty and Jim Yarling or Mary and Joe Black, so their power and phone service haven't been restored. We did hear from some of our other Trinity friends. Most have had minor damage although the church activity center incurred major damage to the roof. We hope to get to church Sunday if all goes well. Their power has not been on yet.

We continue to see all the devastation in the newspaper which was delivered early this a.m., so the presses must be working at the Journal. We get some national news coverage, but until we get our cable, we'll just have to settle for what we read locally and hear on the trusty little battery operated radio.

This has been a more relaxed lifestyle, time to read and visit with friends. We visited our friends in Assisted Living this evening, and stopped in our library where we checked out a new book, Jefferson's Demon by Michael Knox Berin. It's hard to keep up with all the new books which we get. We have $250.00 a month allotted for book purchases, and we're well stocked with paperbacks as well. Bert spends hours on the computer while I sit back in my lazyboy reading. It's a rough life!

Sept.24,2004. This Friday a.m. it's back to our usual routine. Exercises in the Yoga room for me and to Terrace II for Bert. We've decided that we'll conclude the diary this weekend as there's not much news to report. We spent the afternoon catching up on mail which had been delayed, and shuffled the cards with the Cranes in the evening. We understand we're just days from getting cable restored and having safe water. We're keeping an eye on Jeanne which is another hurricane threatening the east coast.

Sept.25, 2004. The Trace Treasures (thrift shop) was open for business and I helped out this morning. Business was good. We had a special-bags for $2.00 with all of the clothes you could pack into them. We had a good response, and now we can concentrate on getting our Fall clothes ready to fill the racks.

As we were leaving the dining room with our take-out meals, the good news was that cable has been restored, and the water from the faucet is safe for drinking. Yeah! We heard shouts from all directions yelling "Hallelujah"!

In the evening we visited Lennie Landis who lives in one of the garden apartments. She just returned from Alaska where she visited a son and daughter-in-law for three weeks. She had planned to be there two weeks but got delayed by Ivan closing our airport. She returned last night, the first day the airport was reopened.

Now we're waiting to see where Jeanne is making landfall. It looks as if the Ft. Pierce-Vero Beach-Melbourne area will be hit again. This is the fourth hurricane to slam Florida in six weeks, and the third time this area has been victimized with horrendous destruction. We'll have to wait and pray to see where it makes landfall.

Sept. 26,2004. Power was restored at Trinity, and we made it to church in time for me to rehearse with the choir.

We had good attendance considering the fact that many people remain without power after eleven days, and some folks have lost their homes. The area where our church is located, an upscale area, has extensive damage with trees down and one-way traffic because of all the debris lining the roads.

Hope was the subject of the sermon given by our very able minister, Dr. Hugh Hamilton. Hope is the certainty that even if things don't work out I'm okay. If we have confidence , we will be strong through tragedies, death, car accidents, bankruptcy, etc.

We can see how much brothers and sisters in Christ have come into Pensacola to help. In addition to the hundreds of utility, telephone, and tree companies employees that have come to Pensacola, we have medical personnel and church groups, of all religions, from all parts of the country and Canada.

In the narthex of the church we had three easel charts with sign-up sheets for people to sign up if they needed help with certain things, had lost their home and needed help in locating someplace to live, or could offer help in some way. So many people were signing up to help, our church service was delayed a little!

The other element of Hope is the capacity to contribute to the benefit of others. God hears our prayers, and He will calm the storm and we'll go forward.

This concludes my journal of Hurricane Ivan. Both Bert and I enjoyed sharing our experiences with you.

Keep in touch!

Love,

Hammy and Bert