Hurricane Ivan in Florida Teaches Lessons for Future Storms

As we drove into Pensacola down US29 the devastation was everywhere. Cement block walls were blown out; at nearly every gas station, the awnings were blown over. Downed trees littered the roads and sidewalks. I was heading to my mother in law's house just off of Gulf Beach Highway, close to the shoreline. I was filled with dread, thinking that if it was this bad this far inland, the neighborhoods closer to the water must have been destroyed.

We got closer; weaving around the debris that littered the streets we began to encounter people who were emerging from the rubble. They were searching the remains of their garages for tools and were already clearing the roads to allow repair crews to pass. These were not people who were going to wait for the government to save them; they were taking care of themselves and each other first.

I arrived at my in-law's house and stepped inside, in spite of the blazing heat the interior of the house was cool, a sure sign that the attic and wall insulation was soaked. There was no power, no phones and no running water. Pensacola, a town of 250,000 people had been kicked back into the nineteenth century. Everything was going to be a struggle.

Our main purpose was to do what little we could to help out in the two days we had. In my truck I had brought a generator, 40 gallons of gasoline, two cases of small propane bottles and an assortment of tools. The first order of business was to get some electricity in the house. Setting up a generator is not all that difficult, but there are some safety rules you need to follow.

Never run a generator in the garage because carbon monoxide fumes can permeate the house faster than you can imagine. It should be set up outside, in an area that has been cleared of flammable materials. Many people want to connect the generator to their house wiring for convenience and It is possible to do. There are two methods for doing this, the correct safe way; and the incorrect dangerous way. I will not go into details on the wrong way to do it except to say that connecting anything to a cord hanging out of your breaker box will at the very least burn your house down. It's also possible that you could cause power to be backed into the service lines and electrocute some unfortunate lineman. A breakout box with relays for properly connecting the generator to the house wiring can be installed by a licensed electrician for around $1200 and if you live in a hurricane prone area it is a good investment. Once you have your generator set up, lock it to something immobile using a chain and a good padlock. People do steal them.

Do not connect a computer or expensive TV to a portable generator. Portable generators are actually designed to operate power tools at a job site and the power that comes from them is not as stable as normal power and can damage some electronics. We set it up in the backyard and locked it to a tree. We then ran a pair of heavy duty extension cords into the house and connected one to the refrigerator and the other to a surge protector where we could plug in some lights and a couple of fans.

How much to run the generator depends on how much gasoline is available. At a minimum you can keep your refrigerator cool by running it for ten minutes out of every hour. If gasoline is available you can run it more but do not run it unless someone is awake to watch it.

Using the propane bottles I had brought we set up a camp stove to cook dinner that night. Spam is a funny word to say, and a meat that everyone makes fun of, but no one really knows the shelf life of a can of Spam, which makes it the perfect hurricane food.

After passing an uncomfortable night in a sleeping bag on the back porch I got up early enough to walk around the neighborhood inspecting the damage. Several houses had their roofs blown off. The common cause of this is failure of the garage door. The wind hits the big and often very light door and blows it in. The air floods into the garage and tries to find a way out, the roof being the path of least resistance. Usually the sheathing on the roof fails first and it peels away in the wind blowing over it. To prevent this many garage doors have reinforcing bars that attach the door securely to the house's frame. If you have them, make sure you know how to attach them properly. If you don't have them you can use your car.

Close the garage door and put a sheet of plywood against the inside of the door. Then carefully roll the car against the plywood, being careful not to damage the door. It doesn't have to press up against it; just put it close enough to hold the plywood in place so that the door can't flex more than an inch or so.

Our task was to remove a large tree that had fallen onto my sister-in-law's house. Removing a tree from a house is one of the more hazardous things you can undertake and it should only be done if the tree is in danger of falling further on its own, or creates some other hazard. Otherwise wait until you can get a professional to do the job. Likewise if the tree is touching power lines in any way, leave it. You have no way of knowing when the power may come back on. Finally, if you are not comfortable working on a roof, or using a chain saw, leave it for the pros.

A tree that has been blown over will usually have a large root ball on it which will act as a counterweight to the rest of the tree. The danger in this is if you remove too much weight at one time, the remainder of the tree can snap back upright suddenly. Keep this in mind as you are removing branches, be careful not to remove too much at once. Set aside a place on the ground where you can throw the branches as you cut them away. Make sure everyone knows where this is and everyone on the ground stays away from it. Start at the top of the tree, removing the smaller branches and gradually work your way down to the larger ones. As you remove weight from the tree it will begin to lift from the roof. Before it does, attach a rope to it and have several people keep tension on it. As you remove small parts of the tree it will lift off of the roof, once it's clear pick a spot near the center of the trunk that you can reach safely and make a vertical cut about three-fourths of the way through it. As the rest of your crew keeps tension on the rope the tree should begin to break away. The object is to get the top of the tree to swing away from the house as the root ball falls back into its hole. At this point be careful, as the tree separates the top part will fall away in the direction it's being pulled and the bottom section is going to snap back upright. Watch what you're doing and be ready to get out of the way, the tree can move suddenly. Once it's upright again you can take the rest of it down at your leisure.

Remember that more people are hurt in the cleanup after the hurricane than in the hurricane itself. The preceding was a description of how we did it, but if you are not sure of your ability to do this safely, wait for the professionals to be available.

Now for something that you should have done before the storm hit. Most people don't realize that most of the water in Florida is pumped from the ground using electrically driven pumps. When there is a total loss of power the pumps stop working and there will be no running water until they come back on. Before the storm hits you need to fill your bathtubs with water. You can use this water for washing and flushing the toilets, do not drink it. The water should be back on within a day or two, but keep in mind that you will probably have to boil it before drinking it.

Life following a disaster, natural or otherwise quickly becomes a series small struggles. Simple things become major undertakings. Every day becomes a search for basic things, ice, water, gasoline, food. People who have been through it learn to live in long lines for everything; this was evident in the few days I was there. Everywhere there were long lines as people searched out the necessities of life.

We had arrived on Saturday and I had to be at work in Jacksonville on Monday, so after removing the tree I had to leave. A quick shower, thank God for a gas water heater, and a change of clothes later I was ready to leave. We had gotten gas outside of Tallahassee so I had only a little more than quarter tank of gas when I left Pensacola so the first order of business was to find somewhere to fill up. With the I-10 bridges across Escambia Bay down and widespread devastation I would have to take the back roads; I wasn't 100% sure if I would have enough to get me to where I could find some more.

I headed up US 29 into Alabama which took me to the city of Flomaton. Even this far North they had no power, I continued on finally coming to the city of Andalusia more than 45 miles inland. On fumes I rolled into a Walmart and joined the long line of people getting gas. After two hours in line I was able to fill up and be on my way. I then headed Southeast through Opp and rejoined I-10 at Bonifay. I got home at 1:00AM, what was normally a six hour drive took twelve hours.

What I learned from this is the sheer power of nature and its ability to alter the landscape. Anything accomplished by man is microscopic when compared to the magnitude of nature.

Life went on in Pensacola. The people slowly put their homes and their lives back together. Even now, three years later the land still bears the scars, a few houses still carry blue tarps on their roofs. Residents have withstood outbreaks of respiratory illnesses due to mold growth in their homes, sores that won't heal without massive doses of antibiotics, and ongoing battles with insurance companies that expect people to make the distinction between windblown water damage and flood damage. Most importantly what I saw was a lot of people who were out to help themselves and each other. They didn't wait with their hands out for the government come rescue them, they took action. They cleared the streets themselves, helped their neighbors cover their damage roofs, and shared what they had.

While I was walking around the neighborhood I met a man whose house had been almost totally destroyed. He told me how he and his wife had emigrated from Jamaica and come here with almost nothing. They lived in a trailer for twelve years, often working two jobs apiece, scrimping and saving to educate themselves and their young daughter. They had finally scraped together enough to put a down payment on a house; a house that they had lived in barely six months and was now a roofless shell. They had lost everything. In spite of this the man looked me in the eye and said, "We'll rebuild it." and went off to help his neighbor.