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The people living in the Panhandle of Florida knew it was coming. They had been through it many times before — or at least thought they had. They all took cover. Yet nothing could prepare them for what was about to occur, and for what would become the fourth-worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

 

 

 

Winds exceeding 140 mph and a 13-foot storm surge so powerful it removed 220-ton sections of an interstate bridge

 

 

 

Within hours of the hurricane making landfall, the 400,000 residents living in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties were in total disbelief.  Approximately 75,000 homes had been damaged and 50,000 people were displaced.  More than 37,000 of these homes belonged to families with household incomes totaling less than $30,000 per year.  Additionally, the main wastewater treatment plant was flooded, causing twelve million gallons of raw sewage to spill throughout the streets of downtown Pensacola.

 

 

 

 

Ninety percent of the area was left without power and tens of thousands of people had no running water. The local hospitals received more than $50 million in damage. With the Pensacola Regional Airport closed due to damage and with all major bridges into Northwest Florida inoperable, there was virtually no way in or out of the area. People began standing in lines for hours for any assistance they could get.

 

A federal disaster area was immediately declared, with the severity of the situation being such that President Bush made a personal visit. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Florida National Guard began airlifting in water, ice and food, including more than 70,000 MREs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers distributed more than 120,000 blue tarps (a.k.a. blue roofs) to give people a temporary means of keeping their roofs from leaking.

 

 

Of the four hurricanes to hit Florida in 2004, Hurricane Ivan was by far the worst. As FEMA worker Candy Newman commented, “I worked hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Ivan. And the degree of damage in Pensacola was more severe. There were more buildings that were leveled.

 

Thousands of families do not have the financial means, government assistance or insurance proceeds to repair their homes.

 

“What happened here was different and more devastating than what happened in the rest of the state. The damage here was a lot more drastic.”

 

In describing the damage caused by Hurricane Ivan, Allan Bense, the Florida Speaker of the House, stated: “There is no close second. I’ve seen my share of hurricanes come through. But nothing like this. It’s unbelievable what Ivan did to you.”

 

Greg Posey, of Mountain Home, Arkansas, and a member of the Church of Christ disaster relief team, summed it up best: “People outside of this area are not aware of how bad it is. I’ve traveled to Third World countries. This looks like a nuclear bomb went off in a Third World country.”

 

So much damage occurred to the infrastructure and business community that two months after the hurricane unemployment claims were still eight times higher than average.  And even today thousands of families do not have the financial means, government assistance or insurance to adequately repair their homes.