Ivan just won’t die

Published 9:00 pm Friday, September 17, 2004

CASHIERS, N.C. – The violent remains of Hurricane Ivan pounded a large swath of the eastern United States on Friday, drenching an area from Georgia to Ohio, washing out dozens of homes, sweeping cars off roadways and trapping students at elementary schools.

The storm, which killed 70 people in the Caribbean and at least 40 so far in the United States, retained its destructive power over land even as its wind speed dropped.

More than 8 inches of rain in some areas triggered deadly floods, hundreds of thousands of people were without power, and tornadoes were reported as far north as Maryland. Even after the storm was no longer classified as a hurricane, it was responsible for the deaths of eight people in North Carolina, four in Georgia and one in Tennessee.

Ivan was the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States since Floyd in 1999.

Meanwhile, Florida residents began to clean on Friday up after their third hurricane pummeling in five weeks, while Alabama residents inspected the crumbled condos and shattered beach homes along that coastline.

The hurricanes have left virtually all of Florida a disaster area, and the recovery from Ivan has been complicated by power outages, washed-out roads and bridges, and gas shortages. In some areas, emergency workers had to be flown in on helicopters, and authorities said it could take weeks to restore water, power and sewer services in parts of the hard-hit panhandle.

“You’ve got to take the bad with the good,” said 42-year-old Tracie Stitt, who stood in a pile of cinderblock and tile that once was the home she and her husband shared with her in-laws near Perdido Bay.

“If you live in California it’d be earthquakes, if you live in Kansas it’d be tornadoes, up north it’s snowstorms,” she said. “There’s not a perfect place on earth. You’ve just got to take your losses and pray and go on.”

On the Alabama coast, the floodwaters that turned beach playgrounds into huge lakes on Thursday began to recede Friday, revealing widespread wreckage. At Gulf Shores, some homes were swept over a beach road littered with air conditioning units, boards and roofing shingles.

More than 750,000 Alabama homes and businesses remained without power Friday afternoon.

Insurance experts put Ivan’s damage at anywhere from $3 billion to $10 billion.

Among those flooded out of their homes was a 1,000-pound alligator that disappeared from a small coastal zoo in Alabama. The 14-foot gator, named Chucky, was one of nine alligators believed to have gotten out of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo during flooding, zoo general manager Kate Ramon said.

“We keep Chucky well fed, so he’s normally not dangerous. But he’s out now and he’s dangerous. We’ve got to find him,” she said.

Heavy rain stranded about 150 students and employees at a southeastern Ohio elementary school, although emergency officials said the building was on high ground and out of danger.

“We’re probably here for the duration of the night,” Amesville Elementary School librarian Patti McKibben said. “The Red Cross is bringing in blankets by boat.”

About 100 schoolchildren in West Virginia’s northern panhandle also were forced to spend the night at their schools because of flooding.