Letter from America
Much is remembered of the hurricanes that hit New
Orleans in 2005, below is an account from former
Woodford Resident, Gary Chandler lives in Pensacola, Florida, USA not far
from the Alabama border. In summer 2004 Hurricane Ivan landed in this area.
Below are some of his emails.
21 September 2004
On Sep 15-16 Ivan came to visit my home. I live
six miles from the Alabama state line and got some of the worst of Ivan,
Except for those folks on the beaches.
Pensacola has been declared a disaster area. The
electricity grid is almost being constructed from scratch. I am on a
generator at this time. Maybe in another two weeks I will get commercial
electricity. My telephone line started working today( Sept 20). We finally
have water again but it must be boiled before drinking or cooking.. Many
very strong concrete bridges damaged.
Almost no buildings escaped some sort of damage. I
have been lucky. I lost a lot of tabs from my shingles on the roof and only
two shingle blew off, I patched the two bad places and my roof will be
waterproof till I can get a new roof.. My workshop lost a window and a
door. All four of my trees are a total loss and must be removed. I fared
better than most as far as property damage.
All four Hospitals in Escambia County sustained
damage. Every school in the county has been damaged and school has been
suspended till further notice.
If someone tells you to expect 135+MPH winds with
rain and Tornados, Get to the bomb shelter. Anything else is Russian
roulette. I speak from Experience.
My old Boy Scout training of, Be Prepared, has
served me well.
Reconstruction is Fantastic. The help we are
getting is probably not understood by all the victims of this storm. The
Florida National Guard units are helping, The Red Cross Is here, Crews from
Quebec Canada, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma and many other places are
here to help us recover. The help we are getting is awesome.
Weeks of work done in one day. Months of work done
in one week. A years work done in a month.
Before the help arrived it was neighbour helping
neighbour.. In a survival situation it is interesting how the good comes out
in people. The bad people are a wee bit outnumbered.
Enjoying the adventure!
28 September 2004
My Electric service was restored today after 12
days. It happened at a good time. Today was my 36th wedding
anniversary so I celebrate two milestones.
I guess you take the good with the bad.
30 September 2004
Very bad storm hurricane Ivan. Last
bad storm was in 1926.
My Boy scout training ( be prepared) has worked well for me.
I build my home on the Rock rather than the sand.
I heard many Tornadoes pass by my home.
The grace of GOD kept me safe.
2 October 2004
Ten days
without electricity, two days without Telephone service, Three days without
Water service, And Twelve days without Cable TV.
Not bad
considering the circumstances.
15 October 2004
Things are slowly getting back to normal for most
folks. Traffic on the roads is still pretty heavy due to the cleanup
efforts.
Pensacola has lots of big trees and a lot of them
are down. They are using grinding machine to grind tree debris into chips
for mulch. There is about five sites accepting this debris. Today I ate
Lunch across from one of these locations. They could cover the Woodford
green 50ft. deep with chipped wood and barely tell it was gone.
For pictures of the aftermath of IVAN check out
the following link…..Lots of pictures…earliest are at the bottom of the
page, most recent at the top.
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/guides/hurricane/galleries.shtml
Example photos
16 November 2004
Hard to believe that it has been
two months since Hurricane Ivan. Many homes still not repaired. Many
families living in emergency housing and more need Housing. I spent this
weekend cutting trees and removing debris with a family member. Time flies
when you are having fun.
