Hurricane Ivan leaves devastation in its wake

By Ellen Barry and Scott Gold
Los Angeles Times

KINFAY MOROTI / ST. PETERSBURG TIMES A sports car sits in sand and water along the remnants of State Road 182 in Gulf Shores, Ala., yesterday after Hurricane Ivan roared through. The hurricane swept ashore early yesterday as a Category 3 storm.

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Ivan damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings, left more than 1 million homes and businesses without power and breached two highways. Ivan, downgraded to a tropical depression, last night was headed north and east, toward the southern Appalachians, where meteorologists expected it to stall today, bringing up to 20 inches of rain and the threat of flash floods.

"Inland flooding will be a major issue," said Jennifer Pralgo, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Tornadoes also are possible for at least the next two days in Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina, Pralgo said.

Ivan, packing 130 mph winds, roared ashore near Gulf Shores Beach, Ala., as a Category 3 storm early yesterday. It brought hurricane-strength winds to 200 miles of coastline, and damage was widespread: a shredded roof of a church in Mobile; billboards crumpled like tissues in Pascagoula, Miss.; a storage tank ripped from its moorings and cast adrift near Venice, La.

Still, most communities appeared to have weathered the storm better than anticipated, except in Florida's Panhandle, where Ivan's deadliest strikes came in the form of tornadoes. The National Weather Service office in Tallahassee said it had issued 124 tornado warnings in 24 hours, more than anyone could remember.

How to help American Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund. Donations can be made by calling 800-HELP-NOW (800-435-7669) or contacting any local chapter. Secure online donations also can be made at www.seattleredcross.org World Vision The Federal Way-based Christian relief organization is accepting donations for disaster victims. Financial contributions to World Vision can be made online at www.worldvision.org, by mail to Hurricane Ivan relief, P.O. Box 70288, Tacoma, WA 98481-0288, or by calling 888-511-6422.

Florida has been struck by three major hurricanes in a little more than a month. Combined damage from the storms could top $25 billion, officials said. Up to one-third of that total likely will be attributed to Ivan.

Four deaths attributed to Ivan came when a tornado tore through three mobiles homes and a wood-frame house in Blountstown, northeast of Panama City. Rescuers told of digging for bodies and survivors while tornadoes bore down on them.

"People are screaming at you, and you have to dig under 5 feet of rubble — floors and wallboard. One man was underneath a refrigerator," said Dan Wyrick, a volunteer firefighter.

"It was blinding: dark rain and wind blowing like crazy," he said. "I had one of the girls on my back and was carrying her out. And the dispatcher called and said: 'Y'all get down, we got another tornado coming down the same path.' It made all the people we were trying to get panic: 'Don't leave me out here!' "

Two bodies were found in a cow pasture about 400 yards from their home, Wyrick said.

	GREG LOVETT / PALM BEACH POST Alex Norton breaks down after seeing that her childhood home along Scenic Highway in Pensacola, Fla., was destroyed. The family had just recently sold the house she grew up in.

Houses that were hit directly were obliterated. A 40-foot tree in the middle of the neighborhood was stripped clean; it looked as if it had been dead for years. A piece of aluminum siding was impaled on top.

Many Panhandle towns were similarly devastated. Windows imploded in high-rise buildings. Huge trees toppled, their root systems as tall as houses. Other trees snapped in half.

Nearly 80 percent of homes and businesses in an eight-county stretch of the Panhandle were without power, and officials said it could be a month before power would be restored everywhere.

After coming ashore, Ivan broke apart portions of two highways, including Interstate 10, a primary east-west thoroughfare in the Southeast.

The I-10 bridge over Escambia Bay, east of Pensacola, failed, Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Tommie Speights said. "Several of the spans are missing," he said. He estimated the interstate would be closed for months.

U.S. 90, which parallels the interstate, also was washed out west of Pace.

At least 14 people were reported killed in Florida, including an 8-year-old girl whose home was leveled by a falling tree in Milton.

	HILDA M. PEREZ / ORLANDO SENTINEL Boats, pushed out of the water by storm surges from Ivan, sit on land in downtown Pensacola, Fla., yesterday.

Four nursing-home and hospital patients died in Louisiana during a massive evacuation, although it was unclear whether their deaths were related directly to the storm or to the evacuation effort, officials said.

A man in Mississippi died while he tried to fix a fallen television antenna, and another man was killed by a falling tree limb. Two deaths were reported in Georgia, including a Franklin County man who was killed when a tree fell on his car. One person was killed in Alabama.

The eye of the storm landed first near Mobile, the center of a metropolitan area of 250,000 people. Officials had predicted Ivan might flood a 12-square-block section of downtown up to the second floors of buildings. The hurricane littered the area with buckled telephone poles, flapping electrical wires and corrugated-steel roofing panels, but flooding was minimal.

New Orleans, particularly vulnerable because much of the city lies below sea level, only received blustery winds, two-tenths of an inch of rain and some downed tree limbs. Flooding was reported, however, closer to the wetland areas that form the coastline to the south and east.

The Coast Guard reopened the lower Mississippi River to most traffic yesterday, said Lt. Rob Wyman. A sweep by Coast Guard officers revealed no pollution outbreaks or vessels adrift on the Mississippi, he said.

Five ports — in Mobile; Panama City, Gulfport, Miss.; Pascagoula; and Pensacola — remained closed last night. The Coast Guard also asked boaters to remain out of the Gulf until authorities say it is safe to return.

Reports of looting and price-gouging were beginning to reach government offices yesterday. Five people had been arrested in New Orleans for looting, officials said. Similar outbreaks were reported in the Pensacola area, among other places.

Gold reported from Houston. Los Angeles Times researchers Lianne Hart, Rennie Sloan and Lynn Marshall contributed to this report. Details on storm-related deaths and New Orleans were provided by The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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