Hurricane Ivan, The Aftermath
Victims Of Hurricane Ivan Begin Slow Recovery
UPDATED: 9:27 am EDT September 18, 2004
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Dazed victims of Hurricane Ivan in Florida and Alabama faced the grim reality Saturday of living without air conditioning and standing in lines for necessities in the summer heat, beginning the long process of recovery with a pledge to rebuild the shattered pieces of their lives and property.
Officials said Friday it would take weeks for power, sewer and water services to be restored in parts of Florida's Panhandle, another storm-ravaged section of a state already hit by Hurricanes Charley and Frances during an otherwise steamy summer.
Residents of the Alabama Gulf Coast and the Panhandle returned to their neighborhoods to find their homes gutted, appliances missing and clothing littered in the streets. Emergency officials promised to deliver needed supplies such as water and bedding, but found it difficult because of debris-strewn roads, washed out highways and power outages.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush offered a bleak assessment of the damage from Ivan, which struck the Gulf Coast on Thursday morning with the sledgehammer force of 130-mph winds and major storm surge.
"The power issue is going to be a bigger issue than in Charley or Frances," Bush said Friday. "Living without air conditioning, it's not just an inconvenience, that's a health issue for a lot of people."
Gulf Power Co. had repaired its main generating plant, 20 substations and about 150 miles of transmission lines on Friday, the company said. But few customers had their power restored.
About 790 miles transmission lines -- more than half of the total lines -- were damaged in the hurricane.
Ivan was the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States since 1999's Floyd, blamed for 56 U.S. deaths. In all, Ivan was blamed for 70 deaths in the Caribbean and at least 40 in the United States, 16 of them in Florida.
David and Melinda Hastings waited in line Friday at the Family Foods Market in Pensacola, among many frustrated people seeking water, food and cigarettes.
"I've been here since '71 -- and I'm sick of it," said David Hastings, 33, who works for a towing company. He spent 23 days in the St. Petersburg area helping clean up from Charley, returning a week ago only to find himself in the midst of another hurricane.
"It's devastating. There's so many people who lost so much," said Melinda Hastings, 32. "We'll make it if everybody holds together and puts it back together. We'll be all right."
Bush deployed about 2,000 National Guard troops to the Panhandle. His brother, President Bush, was expected to visit the area Sunday -- the president's third trip to review hurricane damage in Florida.
The Red Cross has appealed for more donations and volunteers in the wake of the hurricanes. The combined cost of the hurricane season before Ivan was expected to be $50 million, about $14 million more than what had been donated to the agency nationwide this year. Agency officials said it was still too soon to say how much Ivan might add to that price tag.
Bush and Sen. Bill Nelson flew in a helicopter Friday over the normally picturesque barrier islands that dot the Gulf Coast.
"All of the dunes are gone," Nelson said. "All of those sugary white beaches and the dunes have been washed over the entire barrier island. It looks like its the entire white barrier island."
Ivan struck at a time when Florida is still reeling from Charley and Frances. Charley ravaged the state's west coast five weeks ago, while Frances pounded the east over Labor Day weekend. Those storms left Floridians without power for weeks.
Insurance experts put Ivan's damage at anywhere from $3 billion to $10 billion. Charley and Frances had combined estimated insured damages between about $11 billion and $13 billion.
Pensacola firefighter Al Jackson, 52, returned to the Gulf Breeze condo he owns with wife Donna, 52, a retired retail worker. They arrived to find it had been inundated and severely damaged -- the storm surge crushed part of the home, which had a water mark at the top of the front door.
"You don't realize it's going to be this bad," Donna Jackson said. "It's pretty much history because the ceiling has caved in."
Added her husband: "We're overwhelmed, just overwhelmed."
Naval Air Station Pensacola suffered massive damage during the storm, estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the Navy said Friday. Ninety percent of the buildings on the base suffered "significant" damage, although no one was reported injured, according to a Navy statement.
Some military aircraft stationed in the Pensacola area had been flown out ahead of the storm, but other aircraft left behind may have been damaged.
Near Pensacola on Friday, divers recovered the body of a truck driver who died when the cab of his tractor-trailer fell off an Interstate 10 bridge that had been broken apart by the hurricane. The trailer was perched precariously on the bridge, its front portion apparently torn off by Ivan's winds.
The bridge closing over Escambia Bay diverted local traffic to U.S. 90, which was backed up for more than 10 miles.
Ivan weakened after coming ashore, but it continued to spin off tornadoes or cause flooding along much of the U.S. East Coast, already soggy after Charley and Frances. More than a million people were without power across eight states. In Florida, about 399,000 homes and businesses were without power Friday, down from a peak of about 443,000, state officials said.
So much devestation. I continue to keep all of you down there in my prayers. We were lucky up here. Even with hurricane force winds, there wasn't near the damage that's down there. Most importantly, it seems that due to the evacuation, there were alot of lives saved. Lives are the most important. 
