On August 12, 2004, Bonnie hit the Florida Panhandle near St. Marks, the first tropical system of the season to hit Florida. 

 

Bonnie was not a major storm, and she has very little publicity.  In this entry, you will learn why people don't really talk about her.

 

When Bonnie began forming in the gulf, my husband and myself kept an eye on her.  Living where we do, we keep an eye on all the Gulf storms as they could affect us. 

 

It soon became obvious that we were in the direct path of this storm.  Bonnie was a Tropical Storm, meaning her winds did not reach 74 mph, which would give her catagory 1 hurricane status.  However, if you live in an old mobile home, even a substantial tropical storm could warrant evacuation.

 

The closer Bonnie got, the more talk of her reaching Catagory 1 hurricane level before she made landfall.  This meant, my family had to be prepared to evacuate.  We didn't go "all out" for Bonnie.  We bought some food and supplies and packed up a couple of changes of clothes, handful of "quiet toys" for the children, and our homeschool items and records and set everything near the door.  And, we waited.

 

The night before Bonnie made landfall, my husband stayed up all night keeping an eye on the progress of the storm just in case we needed to evacuate during the night.  We went through that night fine, so my husband went to bed when I got up saying "Make sure the boys keep their shoes on today.  When the winds begin to pick up, wake me up and we will evacuate".  I explained this to the boys. 

 

As Bonnie came closer to landfall, the rain began.  So, I began watching outside the windows for winds to begin to pick up.  It rained, and rained, and rained....torrential downpours.  Hours went by this way, the only winds were "breezes" but nothing like what was forcast to hit us.  It appeared that in our area of Florida, Bonnie was a dud.  We never lost power, winds did not pick up, there was no need to evacuate.  However, I left everything packed because Charlie was aiming his sights on the Sunshine State.  Where would he go?  Would he cut across the state and get into the Gulf of Mexico and head towards us?

Hurricane Charlie hit central Florida as a catagory 4 hurricane on August 13, the day after Bonnie hit the panhandle, just north of Captiva Island.   

 

Charlie cut across the state and went out into the atlantic.  With the path he took across the state, he was not a treat to me and my family.

 

So, after Charlie headed out into the atlantic, I finially unpacked everything and put it away. 

 

Frances was a unique hurricane.  She was massive in size, and she didn't hit the state of Florida just once, oh no, she hit the state twice!  And with her shear size, this meant that she ended up affecting the entire state.  I don't think there was a single Floridian that didn't have to deal with her.

 

Frances hit near Port St. Lucie on September 5, 2004 as a catagory 2 hurricane.  She cut a path across the state and went into the Gulf of Mexico.  In a mad dash, I quickly repacked hurricane supplies, clothing, a few toys, and all my homeschool materials...we had to evacuate.  As Frances began her approach, I began carting things out of my house and across the adjacent yards in the pouring rain to my mother in laws as winds began to pick up. We were postponing leaving for as long as possible. As the winds continued to pick up, we began to hear what sounded like popping and cracking inside our mobile home, it was time to go.  The winds were strong enough that the boys, ages 5 and 3, weren't able to walk across the yard to their Nanna's.  My husband grabbed the oldest, and ran for his mom's house.  I grabbed the youngest and followed suit.  Problem was, in the rain and wind, carrying a 3 yr. old, I lost my balance and fell in the yard. Both my son and myself were now wet and muddy.  As lightning began flahsing, and rain pouring down in torrents, there wasn't time to check my son over...I picked my crying preschooler back up and continued the treck across the yard. Once we got to his nanna's I dried him off and looked him over...no noticeable injuries from the fall.

 

On September 6, 2005 she hit Florida for the second time, in the panhandle near St. Marks, while her "tail end" was still in central Florida.  Can you imagine what it's like to have a hurricane hit you that hasn't really left your state in the first place?  Florida isn't really a small state.  And here this fat, wide system is in two sepreate parts of the state, hundreds of miles apart, at the same time!

 

We sat at my MIL's listenting to wind whistling outside and waiting for the storm to pass, wondering what damage our mobile home would sustain. On the morning of  September 7 she was still dumping rain and wind on us, I walked out on my inlaw's porch and looked across the yard...my home seemed to still be in tact. Once her winds and rain subsided, my family went back home.  The only damage our property sustained was the loss of our garbage can lid,some damage to shrubbery, and loss of some skirting.

As Ivan was brewing in the Gulf, everyone in the entire state was concerned.  Florida just could not really handle another tropical system.  South Florida was littered with destruction from Charlie and Frances, and north Florida was drenched with extensively heavy rainfall and damage from Bonnie, Charlie and Frances.  So, to lighten the moods of Floridians someone, somewhere decided to write a letter to Ivan, which I recieved from a friend in my email shortly before Ivan arrived.  Here is the letter, author unknown (I hope you laugh at it as much as I did):

 

 

 

Ivan was originally expected to hit south Florida just like Charlie and Frances did.  However, he made some alternate travel plans, and it was soon reported that he would be hitting Panama City as a Catagory 4!!  My family got scared.  Ivan was a monster!!  Looming out in the Gulf, expected to hit me and my family pretty much head on was this sytem that was almost as big as Frances and twice as powerful.  The kids didn't really understand why mommy and daddy were glued to the Weather Channel day after day.  The boys didn't begin to understand how serious Hurricane Ivan was until two days before he made landfall.

 

My oldest son is a very smart child, and, I had began packing up their bedroom.  Yes, I said packing up their bedroom.  Enough clothing for each child for a week was going into a box along with shoes and socks.  This didn't concern my son too much, he had seen me do this when we prepared to evacuate with Bonnie and Frances too. But, when I dumped three full toy boxes into the bedroom floor, he knew something was really wrong and he said "Mommy, why are you making a mess in our room?".  I couldn't avoid the issue any longer, it was time to tell AP the truth.  I looked at my son and said "Because this hurricane isn't like the others sweetie.  When this hurricane is gone, our home will probably be gone too.  I have to find all of yours and RR's favorite toys and pack them to be evacuated with us and all the other important things.  The items we pack and take out of the house will probably be all that we have left."  My son looked at me for a minute and then said "Ok, I'll help" and he began putting his favorite toys into a huge laundry basket.  And then he said "oh, mommy don't forget RR's ninja turtles and can we take some of our story books too?". 

 

For the next couple of hours, my 5 yr. old son and myself sat in his floor, not saying much and packing. We had stripped his and his brother's beds of the bedding and I took the mattresses (toddler bed size) to my mother in laws for the boys to sleep on over there.  The toys, books, etc. that we weren't taking with us were going into Rubbermaid containers and being stacked in his closet.  I think each of us was just sort of lost in our own thoughts.

 

This was a really sad time for my husband and myself.  Three years before, we had lost almost everything in a house fire and had to start over. We had just began remodeling our kitchen and  just purchased a brand new electronic stove, which we had only used for a couple of weeks and were still making payments on, and once again, it looked as though we would loose everything and have to start over. 

 

While I was packing clothing, toys, food, pictures and "heirlooms" my husband was moving larger items such as my antique cabinet sewing machine.  As I got items packed he was taking the larger items to his parents barn and the smaller items, clothing, food, toys and EVERYTHING for homeschooling (all the curriculum, records, books, etc) to his mom's house (where we were evacuating to) for storage.  We planned on moving the stove as well, but we ran out of time to do so before the winds got strong enough that we had to leave and just leave everything that wasn't already gone behind.  I told my husband, "go ahead and take the boys over to your moms, I'll walk over in a minute.  I need a few minutes alone over here." As I walked through my house, taking one last look, I fell down on my knees in my kids room, looking out their bay window, and began to cry.  I had been telling myself that I was OK with loosing it all as long as we were all ok.  That wasn't true.  As I knelt there and cried, I poured my heart out to God.  I told him "Lord, this old mobile home and its items are all we have besides each other.  We've lost everything once, I don't want to loose it all again.  Lord, I know it's wrong to love a material possession, but...I think that stove in the kitchen is the nicest thing I own and I'd really like to keep it.  We don't have any homeowner's insurance, if we loose this house, we can't really afford to replace it.  Lord, you sent me this house from Georgia for Free when our other one burned, please set your Angels guard over it. I don't expect the anchors underneath it to hold against the winds of Ivan, please anchor this home with anchors no storm can move. And if it's your will for us to loose all this, then please remind me that you will provide again and enable me to be able to pick up the pieces and go on trusting in you." with that, I gained my composure and walked out my door to join my family.

 

 As Ivan continued to approach, my husband and myself stood on his mom's back porch looking at our house.  With huge grey storm clouds in the background, we stared at that mobile home.  My husband said, "honey look at the house.  With it's vent pipes sticking out of the roof, and it's worn paint, doesn't it just look like an old battleship against that sky?"  I smiled and said, "you know, you're right, it does look like an old battleship set to weather the storm".  From that point on, we nicknamed the house "the old battleship".

 

Ivan didn't actually make landfall until between 2 and 2:30 AM on Sept. 16, as a Catagory 3 (thankfully not a 4 or 5 as predicted) but he began creating major damage and claiming live in the panhandle in the late afternoon and early evening hours of September 15.  The time of destruction from "Ivan the Terrible" had began.

 

The children set playing, my inlaws, husband and myself glued to their television set. And urgent allert came across the TV screen between 5 and 5:30 PM, a tornado was spinning through downtown Panama City!  That was the beginning of Ivan's path of destruction.  Within minutes, more tornadoes were touching down across the panhandle, alert after alert went out across area thanks to Panama City News channel 7 Viper Radar.  We watched as they showed each one in circulation.  Then the words we dreaded the most came across the TV, the anchor man was shouting for eveyone in the Calhoun County area to seek shelter immediately, there was a tornado on the ground. 

 

I grabbed my kids and ran for cover, there were no "interior rooms" in that multi split level home.  The lowest point of the house was the kitchen.  The kitchen table was open to glass from a large window and a sliding glass door. The safest place we could find was between a deep freezer and a washing machine...if the roof came down,the beams would land on the freezer and washer before coming down on me and the boys.  There wasn't room in that little space for the whole family, only the three of us.  Other family members went running for their own place of "safety". And with me and the boys lying flat, my body and quilts covering theirs, I would sustain injury from any falling or flying debris before they did. 

 

That tornado passed without incident for us, but it was only the beginning.  Throughout the evening and part of the night, I kept having to grab my kids and run for cover between that freezer and washer in my MIL's kitchen as more reports of Tornadoes in our area came across the TV and radio.  

 

Between tornado alerts, my husband and I each took turns walking outside on his mom's covered porch to look across the yard at our home.  Would it survive this storm?  As dusk approached, we walked out together to take a last look at our home before nightfall.  We stood there watching our home rock back and forth on it's block foundation. We knew that the anchors of our home were only beginning to be put to the test, would they hold?  Ivan hadn't even made landfall yet, the odds of our home surviving this storm were slim and we knew it.

 

Just when everyone thought it was Ok to let the kids go back to playing in the den (the highest level of the house), around 8 PM, the aleart went out across the televison, there was a tornado expected to hit our area in a matter of a few short minutes. I remember my MIL and husband screaming, "Grab the kids and run". Everyone then began scrambling to various places in the house, my husband finding a spot in the living room (next to lowest level of the house). The boys didn't want to stop playing, they weren't willing to run, even though they knew where to go...back to that spot between the freezer and washer.  So, I grabbed each of them by the arm and began half pulling, half dragging them.  There was no way they could stay in the den, they HAD to get between that washer and freezer one way or the other, it was the best chance they had of surviving a roof collapse, and it was the lowest level of the home.  

 

I put my boys on the floor, telling each of them to lie flat. Within seconds we began to hear the sound of a train going down a track, we didn't live anywhere near a railroad, we knew that sound well...it was the sound of a tornado.  We had heard it before when AP was an infant and one took the roof off the house that we were now in for this hurricane. The sound was getting louder, would the window in that room shatter?  I wasn't sure. That house was full of windows and glass doors.  I quickly covered the boys with a quilt, and threw myself down on top of them.  For several, heart stopping minutes, we stayed like that listening to this "train" go over us. We could hear tree limbs snapping, the sound of the house popping and cracking amongst the roar of that tornado.  I kept expecting to hear the roof or windows begin to go, I quickly grabbed a pillow nearby and placed it over my head, holding it with my hands. The boys were huddled under me crying and screaming in fear, and while I was telling them "it's gonna be ok", I was silently praying to God, "please don't let us die". And wondering when it would end, as it seemed to go on forever.

 

Thankfully, that twister spared us and my MIL's house. But had our home survived?  I looked out the windows hoping to get a glimpse of my house, but all I could see was the pitch blackness outside. 

 

The Marshall family (friends of my MIL) just down the road weren't so lucky, it had hit their mobile home head on, they were still inside getting ready to go to work at the local prison for "lock down".  With Ivan not expected to make landfall till the early morning hours, they figured they had time to get to work before the destruction began.  No one expected Ivan to begin spinning off Tornadoes that many hours before landfall. They never made it out of their house, it picked up that home, ripping anchors from the ground, carring it over the couple's vehicles, and wrapping it around a tree across the road.  Power lines were down, it was dark and raining, the ground was wet and ditches began to fill with water... it was considered too dangerous for rescuers to get to the couple.  The next day, after Ivan was gone, their bodies were found in that field amongst their scattered belongings or "debris field".

(Now getting off this little "rabbit trail" and back to the story about my family and Ivan).   

 

When the kids finially went to sleep, we put them to bed in that little spot between the freezer and washer just in case more twisters came during the night, we wouldn't have to wake them up by moving them.  All in the house agreed that sleeping children were much better than screaming, crying and frightned children.  After what they had endured while awake, the unconscious state of sleep was best for them as Ivan continued to roar on.

 

At some point amidst the raging winds of Ivan, I dozed off to sleep while sitting near my boys watching them.  I awoke a couple of hours later to the sound of the horrendous roar of winds and rain mixed with the sounds of the generator.  We had lost power, the generator was powering a light and microwave for my FIL to do manual home dialysis (it was supposed to power his machine. But, with all the tornadoes dad decided he prefered manual since it was more portable, as compared to 7 straight hours confined to a bed and his machine).  It suddenly dawned on me, the fridge had no power and dad's insulin was still in it.  I quickly opened the fridge, grabbed the insulin and stashed it into a small cooler full of ice.  There was nothing left to do but pray and wait for daylight and hopefully the end of Ivan.

 

My husband encouraged me to go back to sleep.  I walked around the house.  My mother in law was on a sofa in the den sleeping, and my husband on another sofa in the living room trying to sleep.  He offered me his sofa, but I was too worried to sleep.  For the rest of the night, various adults took turns "watching" the storm as others tried to get "cat naps" here and there.

 

As daylight dawned, I walked outside on the porch to see what was left of my home.  Much to my surprise, there sat my home upright on it's foundation (I expeted it to be laying in the yard broken, our belongings scattered).  From the looks of things, the house was ok, atleast from the front, some skirting was missing. 

 

Once Ivan's winds calmed, I quickly ventured over to my house to assess the damages.  As I opened the door, I was in shock...no windows were broken, no wall was gone, the roof was completely in tact. I quickly walked through the house and looked into each room. There was only some minor water damage from where water came in the exhaust vent over the stove, got onto my counter and wall ruining a picture and a box of salt and some water had gotten in around the seal of some windows dampening drapery, and some furniture.  The only noticeable property damage sustained was missing skirting, some broken tie downs (the straps that connect the home to the anchors embedded in the ground), and destroyed plants.  God had spared my home!  But, it wasn't quite safe enough yet for us to return home, so I walked back to my mother in laws and informed them of my good news. 

 

After Ivan was finially completely gone, my mind at ease about my house, and restless children from no electricy, our family ventured out in the family van to assess other damage in our area. 

 

When I saw the Marshall house, my heart broke.  Suddenly I wasn't happy that my home had survived.  As I looked at the damage and destruction , knowing that Ivan had claimed not just their home, but their lives, I wished it had taken mine instead.  I would have been happy to have lost my home, had the loss of my home saved their lives.

 

See, when Ivan hit, my house was just a structure with "things", all of which could have been replaced eventually.  And, , there wouldn't have been lives lost because no one was inside.  I was heart broken when I thought about how "selfish" I was about my house, while another family had lost their loved ones...not just a home and possessions.  When Ivan was roaring through, I shouldn't have been praying for God to spare my house...I should have been praying for him to spare people's lives!

 

Most people call this hurricane by it's name or "Ivan the Terrible", but people around my area refer to him as "Night of the Twisters". And, as Ivan was leaving and my family was going home, our worries weren't over yet.  There was another tropical system, Jeanne.  Would this one hit us too? 

Once we learned of Jeanne, we decided that we would leave everything that was in my inlaws barn where it was until we knew just what this storm would do.  It made more sense to just leave it in "storage" than to take it home only to possibly have to move it again.  So, when we returned home after Ivan, our house wasn't exactly "home" as we knew it.  There was some furniture, pictures, etc. that weren't there.  We had only taken back home the most important items such as food, clothing, toys, and the boxes of homeschool materials.  But, we were just glad to be back in our own beds, and getting back into as normal of a routine as possible.

 

Hurricane Jeanne made her landfall near Stuart on September 25, 2004 as a Catagory 3, right where Frances had made her first entrance into the state.  She hit hard an area already terrorized by hurricanes Charlie and Frances.  It was like she was on this mission to finish off central Florida, to wipe it from the map completely.  If she didn't blow away homes, she flooded them.  Pretty much, if you lived in that area of the state, and Charlie or Frances didn't take your home or extensively damage your home, then Jeanne did!

 

With power restored,  I unboxed part of my homeschool supplies (the least important pieces) so that I could condense everything into one rubbermaid container. And, if we used something from this container, I placed it back in the box as soon as we finished with it.  This meant, I had a very disorganized box!  Trying to homeschool this way was like going on a "search and find" daily.  I would dig through and pull out what I needed for one day and then put it back in the top of the box.  Of course, the next day I would need something diffrent, which was usually on the bottom of the box.  And so forth and so on the following days. 

 

 With Ivan, I had moved box upon box and bag upon bag of things.  I didn't want to treck all that stuff back across the adjacent yard to my inlaws again.  I loved my inlaws, knew we were welcome in their home, however after having stayed with them and visited with them through two storms, I was simply tired of it.  I, like a lot of other Floridians, was tired of packing and unpacking and having to leave home.  I did not want to have to evacuate AGAIN, however, I knew it was best to be prepared in case we needed to get out in a hurry.

 

We were still dealing with clean up from Ivan as Central Florida was getting slammed by Jeanne.  And we were keeping a close eye on the weather.  How long would Jeanne remain a hurricane?  When was she going to make her projected northward turn?  There was still so much left unknown for us to really know what we should do.

 

Once again my husband and I discussed "should we evacuate".  We were left with uncertianty. There were no mandatory evacuations in my county.  However, my county also had  no mandatory evacuations for Hurricane Ivan, not even for people in mobile homes!  And because of that, my county had the amount of deaths we did, all fatalities were people in mobile homes.

 

We remained glued to the TV and weather reports.  At first we thought we would evacuate, so we moved all the food and clothing, in bags, and placed them near the door where the big red box of homeschool supplies sat.  We didn't really want to have to leave.  And, with the broadcast of new storm reports, we began to think that maybe we wouldn't evacuate.  Rain and water were no concern to us, only wind, and reports said that Jeanne's winds were downgrading. 

 

 

After Jeanne, thankfully, Florida was not hit by another tropical system for the rest of the season.  And as November 30th dawned, every Floridian in the state breathed a sigh of relief.  We didn't have to worry about another tropical system until June 1, 2005!

 

As for my "old battle ship", well, my husband and I talked about this house.  And we decided to not get another house, we'd just finish remodeling this one instead.  We figured that with as old as this house is, and having endured these storms without major structural damage such as missing walls and roof, then the Lord must want us to keep it. So, we got a jack and fixed the leaning blocks, and missing wedges.

 

I'm now wondering what will happen with the "old battleship" during the 2005 hurricane season.  Will Florida receive a hurricane in 2005?  If we do, how will the "old battleship" fair?  I guess we shall have to wait and see what storm adventure the battleship will endure next.