Ivan the Terrible: The Life of a Storm

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On August 31, 2004 Pagan gods from around the world united to make a final stand against mankind with the forging of Ivan the Terrible. It took the combined efforts of all Deities from Norse, Greek, and Egyptian ancient mythologies to summon the powers of wind and water to create a Storm that would leave a massive wake of death and destruction in unpredictable fashion between South Africa and the NorthWest Panhandle of Florida, United States. Ivan was a classical, long-lived Cape Verde hurricane.2

Man had grown complacent in his fear of Mother Nature. As in all ancient myths, his Hubris became his downfall. People believed their mighty structures of iron and concrete, built by machines of their own creation and engineered by their superior intellect, could withstand the very force of Nature, itself. 3

Ivan flexed his muscles along his track through the Caribbean Sea, becoming a category 5 hurricane three times before making landfall on the US. Still, too many prideful souls resumed their daily lives, giving him neither notice nor respect. Although Ivan became the most powerful storm south east of the Lesser Antilles, man discounted his strength and assumed he would dissipate into nothingness.4

Gulf Shores, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida had weeks to prepare for his arrival yet they insisted on playing a game of chance with their lives, their loved ones, their properties and possessions...and they lost.5

The loss was so great that over a year later, they have only begun to recover. Beaches remain closed, littered with mountains of debris. Heaps of childrens' toys, photo albums, refrigerators, crushed vehicles, attic fans, hunks of roadway, and support beams from homes are still scattered between palm trees on nearly every residential street. Many communities remain levelled. Where subdivisions once stood, there is only new grass. The quantity of debris was overwhelming to a degree that no local land mass was sufficient to contain it. Piles of felled timber and building materials rose higher than five-story buildings and stretched for miles. 6

Clean up efforts have made an impact and restored a semblance of order, but blue roofs, discarded trash, and abandoned dwellings are constant reminders of what it was like the night Ivan ravaged the area.7

What went through the minds of those who chose to disreguard the evacuation warnings? What went through their minds as the water rose up both flights of stairs in their homes and pursued them into their attics? What were they thinking when the fury of the wind was too fierce to scream over it from inside their shelter and be heard inches away? How did they survive the elements when their houses cracked in half and whole walls were swept away in currents before their eyes? 8

911 dispatchers manned their stations and took calls until the last of the phone lines went dead, advising people who were dying or watching their loved ones die that the storm had become too intense for emergency services to remain available. 9

Living through and after Ivan is an unparallelled experience. The chapters that follow are the journey from prideful indifference through the disaster and its aftermath, including the revalation of what it means to be a community with no where to turn but to each other. All names and events in this book are fictional, but are based on actual people and what they witnessed and/or survived during Hurricane Ivan.10

The National Hurricane Service provides data on the storm at www.nhc.noaa.gov/2004ivan.shtml#FIG2c.11