Ivan
Hits America:Jeanne On The Way
By David Usborne
17 September 2004
The Independent
Shrieking winds, drenching rains and repeated
tornadoes ravaged a huge swath of the south-eastern United States as
the long-feared Hurricane Ivan finally lunged ashore from the Gulf of
Mexico in the early hours of yesterday, shredding buildings and trees
and killing at least eight people.
But even as coastal
residents in an area stretching all the way from Louisiana in the west
and the Florida panhandle in the east struggled to endure the tempest
and widespread power blackouts, there was a measure of relief that Ivan
did not appear to have packed quite the terrible punch that some had
predicted.
As the eye came
ashore just to the east of Mobile, Alabama, at about 2am local time
yesterday, the wind speeds tempered significantly, dropping from about
135mph at landfall to 80mph shortly afterwards. After dawn, it continued
to track inland through Alabama slowly and had been downgraded to a
category one storm.
The Florida panhandle
felt the worst fury of Ivan as winds ripped at trees and homes. Part
of Interstate 10, the main artery running east to west through the panhandle
was closed after a bridge was destroyed by the storm. "You want
to see the natural hand of God first-hand but you don't realise how
strong it is," said Kevin Harless, 32, who was sightseeing in Panama
City Beach, Florida, as the tornadoes began.
Relief, even celebration,
was the feeling in New Orleans, which had been braced for calamity.
In the event, the city, which mostly lies below sea level, suffered
only light rain and high gusts as Ivan shifted more to the east. About
1.2 million people, who had fled New Orleans ahead of Ivan, were returning
home yesterday after the hurricane warning was lifted.
Even in Mobile,
Alabama, officials were thankful that the worst had been avoided. "Ivan
was nowhere near as bad as Frederic - not even close," Sam Cochran,
the police chief at Mobile said, referring to the 1979 storm that devastated
the Alabama coast. "I think we were really spared and blessed."
Those who chose
not to evacuate Mobile were thanking their blessings. "We were
wondering at first if we made the right choice or not," said Marc
Oliver, 38, who rode out Ivan with his family in Mobile. "We had
some trees down in our yard and roofing damage, other than that, we
came out pretty good."
The full extent
of the damage was still being assessed last night, but insurance companies
were preparing to receive claims totalling as much as $10bn (£5.5bn).
The area of damage was expected to widen as Ivan headed north towards
Georgia. "I hate to think what is going to happen inland,"
commented Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Centre in Miami.
At least eight people
died in north-west Florida when tornadoes damaged or destroyed up to
70 buildings, including a fire station, police said. Five were killed
when a twister struck a mobile home near Blountstown in Calhoun County
and an eight-year-old girl who died when a tree fell on her home in
Milton, local officials said. In Pensacola, Florida's leading deep-water
port, three hospitals were damaged as well as the Pensacola Civic Centre.
Roofs were ripped from homes and hotels, and a bridge over Escambia
Bay was cut in two.
Flooding remained
a serious concern from a storm surge from a gulf that topped 16 feet
with huge waves riding on top, as well as from torrential of rain that
was expected to fall over a huge inland area for several hours as the
progress of Ivan slowed. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people
in Alabama and Florida were without power yesterday.
No one wanted to
hear it, but another hurricane, Jeanne, was tracked westwards through
the Caribbean last night, just north of Puerto Rico and was expected
to strike the United States mainland, probably somewhere on Florida's
east coast, late this weekend.