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Pensacola braces for possible direct strike

By CARRIE JOHNSON, ALEX LEARY and GRAHAM BRINK
Published July 10, 2005

	Photo gallery Tell us what you've seen Latest from AP What to expect today Animated Florida radar Storm's swath touches bay area Key West again escapes direct hit Hurricane Dennis Were you ready for Dennis? Yes, I had my hurricane plan all set No, I'm never quite ready for the season Not completely, still have to stock up on a few more supplies

PENSACOLA - Bill Achterberg shook his head at the futility of it all as he stacked scraps of lumber and tar paper behind his waterfront house.

Hurricane Ivan nearly obliterated Achterberg's Grande Lagoon neighborhood in September. Residents broke down in tears after waiting days to see their homes. Houses were washed off their foundations. Trees still hang at all angles.

How do you prepare for a hurricane when your home is still a shambles from the last one?

"Who knows?" Achterberg, 49, said Saturday. "By tomorrow, this might all be nothing more than sand."

While forecasters warned that Dennis could hit anywhere from Louisiana through the Florida Panhandle, the people of Pensacola acted as if a bull's eye was on their city.

Ivan left deep scars that are still visible all around Pensacola. The psychological wounds also are fresh. Residents lamented that Dennis seemed intent on finishing what Ivan started.

Saturday afternoon, shelters began filling up. Some residents fled as early as Thursday.

Emergency personnel in Escambia County and adjacent Santa Rosa County sounded depressed during a telephone call Saturday, said Gov. Jeb Bush.

"They're hurting," Bush said. "The fact is that there is a legitimate feeling of "Why me?, Why us? What did we do wrong?"

Fierce storms have peppered Pensacola from the earliest days of the city's existence.

The Spanish settled Pensacola in 1559, but a hurricane virtually wiped them out.

From 1900 through 2004, 26 hurricanes struck the Northwest quadrant of the state, most of them in the Panhandle, according to the National Hurricane Center. Eight were major hurricanes - Category 3 and above.

The most recent, Ivan, seared itself into the area's consciousness with its ferocity.

A Category 3 storm when it hit, Ivan caused $7.1-billion in insured losses, making it one of the most costly hurricanes in U.S. history. Ten months after Ivan, blue tarps blanket roofs.

Thousands of Panhandle residents displaced by the storm are housed in 3,200 government mobile homes.

Ivan tore through walls and roofs at the historic facilities that had stood for more than a century on the tip of the Pensacola Naval Air Station.

The storm toppled a vital bridge on Interstate 10. It also destroyed sand dunes, making the area more vulnerable as Hurricane Dennis approaches.

In Escambia County, which has an annual budget of about $400-million, debris removal alone cost $200-million, said county administrator George Touart. "God forbid what is going to happen now," he said.

Residents and emergency workers know what to do now. Residents appeared to heed the evacuation notices more this time than when Ivan approached, officials said.

About 1,400 power company workers are ready to move in after the storm. Stockpiles of food, water and ice are positioned all across the area.

Staff at the state's emergency operations center combated fatigue with experience and patience.

"We've done this so many times, with so many different kinds of storms, there are fewer surprises," said Alan Levine, secretary for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. "When it's new, you don't know what to anticipate. Now we do."

As night descended, evacuees shuffled into the Pensacola Civic Center, the city's largest shelter. They wore weary faces and carried sleeping bags, portable radios and crossword puzzles.

"God shined on me during Ivan. I'm not going to take a chance on Dennis," said Debra Crowley-Freeman, amazed Ivan did not harm her mobile home.

The 47-year-old house painter pulled a basket of personal items, including cherished pictures of her mother and daughter, a Marine stationed in Germany. She rode out Ivan at a rest stop near Memphis. This time, she decided to stick close to home.

Ray Porras, 44, lost his apartment to Ivan last year. He, his wife and three children moved into a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer but he fears Hurricane Dennis will wipe that away, too. Even if it survives, Porras fears his time there is limited.

Porras said FEMA people come by every month and ask, can you move out, can you move out?

"We don't know what we'll do," said Porras, a construction worker who spends his days rebuilding expensive waterfront homes that Ivan damaged.

"If Dennis hits we'll pack up what things we have and leave. I used to work in California, maybe we'll go there."

"What can you do?"

At Grande Lagoon, Achterberg's stilted waterfront home didn't fare well during Ivan. Inside is still a tangle of dangling wires, bare plywood and mounds of insulation.

But Achterberg's biggest concern Saturday was his mobile home. Achterberg has been living in the house's shadow, crammed into a mobile home provided by FEMA.

FEMA told residents they are responsible for the homes. So Achterberg and his daughter tried their best, anchoring the structure to the house with ropes and chains. If he loses it, FEMA officials say he and others like him won't have to reapply for temporary housing assistance.

Achterberg and his 10-year-old daughter, Martina, were at the house Saturday evening, trying to prepare it for Hurricane Dennis.

"What can you do?" asked Achterberg, a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marines who is now a pilot for Delta Airlines. "You can't just give up. People keep saying "I can't believe another storm is coming.' Well, believe it. It's here."

By dusk, father and daughter had loaded up their truck and were preparing to bunk with friends in Pensacola until the storm passed.

"People say it's not fair that we have two storms," Achterberg said. "But there is no such thing as fair. Fair is a human invention."

Times staff writers Joni James, Chris Tisch and David Karp contributed to this report.

[Last modified July 10, 2005, 00:05:23]