An Anniversary: Part 1

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009 marks the five year anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Ivan.  Five years!  I can’t believe it, it still feels so much like it happened just yesterday.  A lot of the memories are very clear, some have thankfully diminished over time, but I couldn’t let the day go by without telling our Hurricane Ivan story.

Well, by now we knew the thing was on it’s way.  We were concerned of course, but (other than a 4 year stint overseas in the military) we had lived in NW Florida all our lives and been through many hurricanes before.  We were pros, we knew the drill, we were just ready for it to hit and to start getting over it already!

As children we all heard the stories of the “big one” that hit downtown Pensacola and pretty much wiped it out.  We experienced Hurricane Frederick for ourselves in 1979.  As adults we lived through Hurricane Erin in August of 1995 and Opal in October of 1995…a two-for lol!  I had just had ds2.  We were without power for about 4 days.  We had a lot of branches and an occasional tree down.  We stood in a lot of lines for ice.  We were officially now pros at this game (or so we thought!)

Now Ivan is on it’s way.  I am 9 months pregnant with ds4.  We are living 30 minutes from Pensacola and dh’s work at the hospital.   Our house is brick, stable, on a hill…no need to evacuate.  However, since we were 30 minutes, a causeway and bridge away from dh’s work and help for me if I went into labor we decided to move into town and stay with my parents.  My dr and family tried to convince me to stay at the hospital itself, but my parents live super close to it and I wasn’t really worried.  (Later I would be very glad I didn’t go!)  My brother, who also works at the hospital, was part of the “before” crew…those assigned to be at the hospital before and during the storm.  Dh was part of the “after” crew…he would be expected to return to work after the storm.  We stocked up on water, food, candles, flashlights, medicines, etc. etc.  We were ready.  Or so we thought…