Hurricane Ivan Leaves At Least 8 Dead In Florida
UPDATED: 10:50 am EDT September 16, 2004
PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Hurricane Ivan killed at least eight people in the Florida Panhandle as it came ashore Thursday in nearby Alabama, its tornadoes and heavy winds ripping roofs off buildings and toppling trees. The storm's towering waves battered the state's northern Gulf Coast and its torrential rain and strong storm surge caused flooding inland.
Thousands of Panhandle residents evacuated to shelters to get away from the shore and escape Ivan's 130-mph winds. Many were from low-lying areas under mandatory evacuation orders as the state faced its third hurricane in a month. Ivan knocked out power to at least 338,000 homes and businesses in eight Panhandle counties, including a Pensacola shelter with 1,700 people. Search and rescue teams were planning to head to affected areas to scour rubble for any dead or injured. A portion of a bridge on the major east-west highway through the Panhandle was washed away.
Tornado warnings were issued Thursday morning throughout much of northwest Florida.
"It was a very long night for our neighbors to the west of us," Gov. Jeb Bush said. "My heart goes out to the people who have lost a lot."
Five people were killed Wednesday night when a tornado tore through the Calhoun County town of Blountstown about 40 miles northeast of Panama City, according to a police dispatcher. Two other people were killed by a tornado in Panama City earlier Wednesday. An 8-year-old girl was killed early Thursday in Milton, about 20 miles northeast of Pensacola, when a tree fell on her family's mobile home.
"We heard banging and crashing all night long," said Mark Sigler, who rode out the storm in a reinforced home on Pensacola Beach.
Ivan's 2 a.m. CDT landfall was about 40 miles west of Pensacola near the coastal Alabama town of Gulf Shores. That put the Panhandle on the east side of Ivan's eye, where winds, storm surge and flooding are the fiercest and conditions are ripe for tornadoes. Ivan weakened as it moved inland, with winds of 115 mph about two hours after it hit land. Its wind speed had dropped to 80 mph at 7 a.m. CDT.
Two people were killed and more than 200 homes were damaged as at least five tornadoes roared through Bay County, authorities said. Rescuers dug through rubble Wednesday night but found no one trapped underneath, county spokeswoman Catherine McNaught said.
National Hurricane Center forecasters said land east of where Ivan's eye passed was experiencing storm surge of 10 to 16 feet, topped by large and dangerous battering waves.
We've had calls from folks saying, 'The water is rising, can you come get me?' Unfortunately we can't send anybody out," Escambia County emergency management spokeswoman Sonya Smith said early Thursday.
The tornadoes damaged homes, a downtown firehouse, and a restaurant in Panama City Beach and overturned cars. They also knocked down a billboard and shredded the canopy of a gas station.
Nancy King, 77, was killed when a tornado demolished her three-bedroom home across East Bay from Tyndall Air Force Base northeast of Panama City, McNaught said. Another tornado at Panama City Beach killed John Martin, 84, who was checking his daughter's real estate business with his son. Martin's son ducked into another room when the tornado approached and was not injured, McNaught said.
Seven other people were taken to area hospitals with tornado-related injuries but none was considered critical, McNaught said.
The shelter at the Pensacola Civic Center had about four holes in its roof from where air vents were ripped off by the wind, said Sandie Aaron, regional general manager for the company that manages the arena. None of the 1,700 people staying there was hurt.
"It was scary. Because every time one of those suckers flew off the top of the roof it sounded like a bomb going off," she said.
In downtown Pensacola, parking areas surrounding the Pensacola News Journal were flooded and the water blocked its entrance before it eventually receded. Water seeped into the building about four blocks from Pensacola Bay, barely covering parts of the floor. Four hospitals in Escambia, which contains Pensacola, had some roof damage and broken windows, but no one was hurt, officials said. No other details were available. A portion of the Interstate 10 bridge over Escambia Bay was washed away.
In Fort Walton Beach, a nursing home lost its generator power and reported that six patients desperately needed oxygen. An emergency medical crew drove through the 90 mph winds to deliver portable oxygen tanks.
Seven business were destroyed or heavily damaged across Okaloosa County and Crestview Town Hall lost its roof.
A house destroyed by raging surf caused by Hurricane Ivan in seen in Harbour View, Jamaica, Monday, September 13, 2004.
At least two tornadoes ripped through Jackson County near the towns of Cypress and Marianna, causing extensive damage to at least two main mobile home parks, trees and power lines and some minor injuries, said county spokeswoman Laura Mager. The county borders Alabama in the central Panhandle.
One of the Jackson County tornadoes damaged the perimeter fence and other sections of a federal prison in Marianna, knocking out the facility's power, said federal prison spokesman Dan Dunne. Inmates were locked down in their housing unit and no security problems or injuries were reported. The prison was temporarily operating under generator power, officials said.
About a dozen homes built on stilts in the coastal community of Cape San Blas were swept into the ocean as waves up to 25 feet eroded the sand beneath their foundations, Gulf County officials said. The small peninsula about 35 miles southeast of Panama City is known as a scenic vacation and resort destination with 200 to 300 beachfront homes.
Roads were under water in several parts of Walton and Gulf counties, and access to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, one of the state's most picturesque beaches, was cut off.
Three mobile homes were burned down in two separate fires at Reid's Trailer Court in Panama City Beach, said deputy fire chief David Humphreys. No injuries were reported, and the fire's cause was being investigated.
At 7 a.m. CDT Thursday, Ivan was centered about 90 miles west-southwest of Montgomery, Ala., and moving slightly east of north at 17 mph. Its top sustained winds weakened to around 80 mph, down from about 130 mph at landfall at Category 3 strength. A hurricane warning was in effect from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to Apalachicola, but a tropical storm warning in place from east of Apalachicola to Yankeetown was canceled.
Forecasters warned of hurricane-force winds, 74 mph or above, up to 50 miles away from the center as it hits land, extending well inland Thursday.
Ivan crashed ashore as Floridians still dealt with destruction across a wide swath of southwest Florida and the central Atlantic coast. Hurricanes Charley and Frances caused billions in damage and were blamed for more than 50 deaths statewide.
Frances was a slow-moving storm that covered much of the peninsula after it struck the state's central Atlantic coast Sept. 5, while Charley was a faster, stronger, more compact storm when it blasted into the state's southwest coast Aug. 13. About 160,000 customers were without power in the state from Ivan and Frances.
More trouble lingered out in the Atlantic. Hurricane Jeanne strengthened from a tropical storm Thursday in the Caribbean as it moved westward across the north coast of Puerto Rico and headed to the Dominican Republic. At 8 a.m., it was about 900 miles east-southeast of Miami with 80 mph winds and could be near Florida's east coast as early as the weekend.