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Fleeing Ivan's fury
In Florida Keys, flight from storm takes shape
By Maya Bell
Miami Bureau
September 10, 2004, 7:57 AM EDT
KEY LARGO -- Tourists and mobile-home residents began fleeing the Florida Keys on Thursday as Hurricane Ivan, the third storm to threaten the state in a month, took aim at the fragile island chain and perhaps the mainland as well.
The specter of a triple whammy worried Gov. Jeb Bush, who said, beyond preparation, there was but one thing to do.
"We can all pray," he said in Tallahassee. "And I intend to do some praying tonight that it redirects itself."
After leaving the tiny spice island of Grenada in ruins, Ivan was on course in the Caribbean to pound Jamaica today and threaten Cuba on Saturday.
From there, Ivan was projected to slow down during the weekend, becoming less predictable and prolonging the agony of a state still struggling to recover from back-to-back hurricanes Charley and Frances.
At 8 a.m., Ivan's eye was about 165 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. Hurricane-force winds extended 50 miles, while tropical storm-force winds stretched 175 miles. Ivan was moving west-northwest at 13 mph and maximum sustained winds were near 145 mph.
"Florida is definitely in the picture," said Chris Hennon, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center west of Miami. "It's definitely within the realm of possibility it will impact some place in Florida."
Forecasters could not say where, when, or even if Hurricane Ivan would make landfall in Florida, but forecast models Thursday showed the Keys engulfed in Ivan's cone of uncertainty.
And after spending the day crunching gears between a powerful Category 4 and Category 5, the storm caught the attention of even the most hardy citizens of what is sometimes called the Conch Republic.
"From what I understand, a majority of people will leave this time because they've seen what happened with Charley and Frances," said Irene Toner, director of Monroe County's Emergency Management Office, after ordering her third evacuation of visitors and mobile-home dwellers in a month.
In fact, on Thursday many islanders were buttoning up their homes, hauling out their boats and gathering precious scrapbooks and other irreplaceables in anticipation of today's evacuation of the island chain's remaining 79,000 permanent residents.
Among them was Terry Schricker, 53, a retired electrical engineer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He said he spent half his life flying into the most ferocious storms with hurricane hunters who collect data for research and forecasts.
"Andrew [in 1992] was the first major hurricane I experienced on the ground, and I tell you what, I'd rather see them from the air," Schricker said as he packed his station wagon with a few belongings from his waterfront mobile home in Key Largo. "I know better than to stay. There's no question in my mind."
He and his wife, Kate, were far from alone. Most of the homes in Wynken, Blynken and Nod Estates, a collection of clap-trap mobile homes and million-dollar stilt houses on the Atlantic Ocean, were empty or nearly so.
Scott Silverson, 41, a lawyer who moved alone to a new job in the Keys a year ago, was packing his sport utility vehicle for the commute back to his family in Orlando, a journey that took him 14 hours before Frances' outer winds slapped the islands last week. Counting the coconuts, tires and other debris that Frances hurled in the canal behind his stilt home, he didn't hesitate undergoing the ordeal again.
"If a Category 1 did that, imagine what a Category 5 would do," Silverson said. "As they said in Ghostbusters, this is apocalyptic. . . . But, of course, there'll be some die-hard Conchs who will try to weather it."
And, of course, there were. Just next door, at Cindy's Hair Place, Barb Hussan 54, had no intention of closing, or leaving town.
"What evacuation?" she said, giving a teen-ager a spike cut. "I haven't left in 26 years. I'm in a very secure house. It's all concrete. I'm prepared."
Those who opt to stay behind had better be. Most stores were thin on basic supplies, such as water. At the Scotty's Hardware, sales clerk Bill Chaisson spent the afternoon turning customers away.
"I'm just answering the phone, telling people we don't have it," he said. "No plywood. No tarps. No generators. No propane. No duct tape."
Frank Woll, the owner of Florida Bay Outfitters, had the opposite problem. He had too many brand-new kayaks and canoes to haul north on his small trailer. He loaded up about 40 of his 250 inventory and hoped for the best.
"I don't have insurance," he said. "But I was already packed for Frances, so I'm getting out of here. Maybe I can sell them on the side of the road."
At the popular Hog's Breath Saloon, in downtown Key West, general manager Charlie Bauer was wondering how he would recover. He just had his worst six weeks since 1988.
"It's been a financial disaster since Charley, but it's hard to complain when the rest of the state is without air-conditioning," said Bauer, who normally doesn't budge, but will now. "I won't even hang around for a Category 3."
At Holiday Isle in Islamorada, the biggest resort in the Upper Keys, owner Scott Simmons said guests were leaving his 178-room hotel with little encouragement.
"Where do we send people is actually a question," Simmons said. "They don't know where to go: the east coast, the west coast or to Canada."
Tourism officials felt for the displaced evacuees and were hoping they weren't sending them into more misery.
"We're hoping there's power, we're hoping there's hotels, we're hoping there's gasoline wherever they go," said Andy Newman, a spokesman for Monroe County's tourism industry.
The last time a total evacuation of the Keys was ordered occurred in 2001, for Hurricane Michelle, a Category 4 storm with top sustained winds of 135 mph. It missed hitting the Keys directly. At that time, officials estimated that only 15 percent of the residents left.
At John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, where campers were rousted from their tents early Thursday morning, rangers were already preparing for what may come, including their eventual return.
"We're packing up all our computers, the stuff we can't replace and the stuff we'll need to get back -- like chain saws and generators," assistant park manager Bob Bodner said.
He remembers the eight long months it took for the last park he worked at, Bahia Honda State Park on Big Pine Key, to reopen after Hurricane Georges clobbered the Keys in 1998.
In Tallahassee, Bush said even National Guard troops are exhausted from two previous hurricanes, but Florida is accepting help from 25 states including California.
"We're going to redouble our efforts and prepare the best we can," Bush said. "This has been an incredible month."
Bob Mahlburg of the Sentinel staff and Mark Hollis, Noaki Schwartz and Robert Nolin of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel contributed to this report. Wire services also were used. Maya Bell can be reached at mbell@orlandosentinel.com or 305-810-5003.
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...sep10,0,2968721.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
Fleeing Ivan's fury
In Florida Keys, flight from storm takes shape
By Maya Bell
Miami Bureau
September 10, 2004, 7:57 AM EDT
KEY LARGO -- Tourists and mobile-home residents began fleeing the Florida Keys on Thursday as Hurricane Ivan, the third storm to threaten the state in a month, took aim at the fragile island chain and perhaps the mainland as well.
The specter of a triple whammy worried Gov. Jeb Bush, who said, beyond preparation, there was but one thing to do.
"We can all pray," he said in Tallahassee. "And I intend to do some praying tonight that it redirects itself."
After leaving the tiny spice island of Grenada in ruins, Ivan was on course in the Caribbean to pound Jamaica today and threaten Cuba on Saturday.
From there, Ivan was projected to slow down during the weekend, becoming less predictable and prolonging the agony of a state still struggling to recover from back-to-back hurricanes Charley and Frances.
At 8 a.m., Ivan's eye was about 165 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. Hurricane-force winds extended 50 miles, while tropical storm-force winds stretched 175 miles. Ivan was moving west-northwest at 13 mph and maximum sustained winds were near 145 mph.
"Florida is definitely in the picture," said Chris Hennon, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center west of Miami. "It's definitely within the realm of possibility it will impact some place in Florida."
Forecasters could not say where, when, or even if Hurricane Ivan would make landfall in Florida, but forecast models Thursday showed the Keys engulfed in Ivan's cone of uncertainty.
And after spending the day crunching gears between a powerful Category 4 and Category 5, the storm caught the attention of even the most hardy citizens of what is sometimes called the Conch Republic.
"From what I understand, a majority of people will leave this time because they've seen what happened with Charley and Frances," said Irene Toner, director of Monroe County's Emergency Management Office, after ordering her third evacuation of visitors and mobile-home dwellers in a month.
In fact, on Thursday many islanders were buttoning up their homes, hauling out their boats and gathering precious scrapbooks and other irreplaceables in anticipation of today's evacuation of the island chain's remaining 79,000 permanent residents.
Among them was Terry Schricker, 53, a retired electrical engineer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He said he spent half his life flying into the most ferocious storms with hurricane hunters who collect data for research and forecasts.
"Andrew [in 1992] was the first major hurricane I experienced on the ground, and I tell you what, I'd rather see them from the air," Schricker said as he packed his station wagon with a few belongings from his waterfront mobile home in Key Largo. "I know better than to stay. There's no question in my mind."
He and his wife, Kate, were far from alone. Most of the homes in Wynken, Blynken and Nod Estates, a collection of clap-trap mobile homes and million-dollar stilt houses on the Atlantic Ocean, were empty or nearly so.
Scott Silverson, 41, a lawyer who moved alone to a new job in the Keys a year ago, was packing his sport utility vehicle for the commute back to his family in Orlando, a journey that took him 14 hours before Frances' outer winds slapped the islands last week. Counting the coconuts, tires and other debris that Frances hurled in the canal behind his stilt home, he didn't hesitate undergoing the ordeal again.
"If a Category 1 did that, imagine what a Category 5 would do," Silverson said. "As they said in Ghostbusters, this is apocalyptic. . . . But, of course, there'll be some die-hard Conchs who will try to weather it."
And, of course, there were. Just next door, at Cindy's Hair Place, Barb Hussan 54, had no intention of closing, or leaving town.
"What evacuation?" she said, giving a teen-ager a spike cut. "I haven't left in 26 years. I'm in a very secure house. It's all concrete. I'm prepared."
Those who opt to stay behind had better be. Most stores were thin on basic supplies, such as water. At the Scotty's Hardware, sales clerk Bill Chaisson spent the afternoon turning customers away.
"I'm just answering the phone, telling people we don't have it," he said. "No plywood. No tarps. No generators. No propane. No duct tape."
Frank Woll, the owner of Florida Bay Outfitters, had the opposite problem. He had too many brand-new kayaks and canoes to haul north on his small trailer. He loaded up about 40 of his 250 inventory and hoped for the best.
"I don't have insurance," he said. "But I was already packed for Frances, so I'm getting out of here. Maybe I can sell them on the side of the road."
At the popular Hog's Breath Saloon, in downtown Key West, general manager Charlie Bauer was wondering how he would recover. He just had his worst six weeks since 1988.
"It's been a financial disaster since Charley, but it's hard to complain when the rest of the state is without air-conditioning," said Bauer, who normally doesn't budge, but will now. "I won't even hang around for a Category 3."
At Holiday Isle in Islamorada, the biggest resort in the Upper Keys, owner Scott Simmons said guests were leaving his 178-room hotel with little encouragement.
"Where do we send people is actually a question," Simmons said. "They don't know where to go: the east coast, the west coast or to Canada."
Tourism officials felt for the displaced evacuees and were hoping they weren't sending them into more misery.
"We're hoping there's power, we're hoping there's hotels, we're hoping there's gasoline wherever they go," said Andy Newman, a spokesman for Monroe County's tourism industry.
The last time a total evacuation of the Keys was ordered occurred in 2001, for Hurricane Michelle, a Category 4 storm with top sustained winds of 135 mph. It missed hitting the Keys directly. At that time, officials estimated that only 15 percent of the residents left.
At John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, where campers were rousted from their tents early Thursday morning, rangers were already preparing for what may come, including their eventual return.
"We're packing up all our computers, the stuff we can't replace and the stuff we'll need to get back -- like chain saws and generators," assistant park manager Bob Bodner said.
He remembers the eight long months it took for the last park he worked at, Bahia Honda State Park on Big Pine Key, to reopen after Hurricane Georges clobbered the Keys in 1998.
In Tallahassee, Bush said even National Guard troops are exhausted from two previous hurricanes, but Florida is accepting help from 25 states including California.
"We're going to redouble our efforts and prepare the best we can," Bush said. "This has been an incredible month."
Bob Mahlburg of the Sentinel staff and Mark Hollis, Noaki Schwartz and Robert Nolin of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel contributed to this report. Wire services also were used. Maya Bell can be reached at mbell@orlandosentinel.com or 305-810-5003.
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