Hurricane Ivan |
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Hurricane
Ivan made landfall near the port of Mobile, Alabama, at about 03:00 a.m. on Thursday,
September 16, 2004 bringing ferocious, swirling winds and heavy rains. As a category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane
intensity scale, Ivan was one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast,
causing extensive damage to coastal areas of Alabama and the western Panhandle of Florida. Fortunately, Panama City was spared the worst of
the storm. Our most frightening moments were
caused by several tornados spun off by the hurricane on Wednesday afternoon. Thomas Drive
in Panama City Beach was heavily damaged and several establishments were destroyed. One person was killed when the tornado flipped his
automobile. Another person was killed in
Callaway. PHEREC
sustained minor damage mostly from high winds whipping and shredding the screening on our
outdoor enclosures. There was also some minor
flooding from high water from Robinson Bayou that entered storage buildings. Adequate
warning of the approaching storm plus the recent images of Charley and Frances, and the
experience of Opal, resulted in very thorough preparation for Ivan. All laboratory vehicles were relocated to higher
ground away from overhanging trees. All
windows and doors were protected with plywood and the areas most at risk of flooding from
storm surge were caulked to keep out flood waters. It
worked! The PHEREC library stayed dry [unlike
the experience with Opal]. Electrical
power was lost during the height of the storm, but was restored before 07:30 a.m. on
Friday, September 17. We were particularly
fortunate in this regard because we store scientifically valuable reference materials at
ultra low temperatures in a special deep freeze. Also,
we store several months supply of highly perishable materials in freezers for our research
projects. We were relieved that all these
materials survived the hurricane without a problem. When
the storm subsided and we were able to survey the effects of “Ivan the Terrible”
what we saw was high water and plenty of flotsam and jetsam.
Jim French, our maintenance man, captured the
digital images shown on the next pages.
These photographs were taken on
Thursday afternoon shortly after the fiercest winds had died down. We
were fortunate this time. We were well
prepared and we were spared the worst. However,
the experience leaves us with great respect for the power of a storm and the unexpected
tornados that it generated.
Reported by: Jack Petersen |
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To contact us: |
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Dr. John P. Smith, |
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