Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Hurricane Dennis

Reality's a relief for volunteer crew

They had sifted through Ivan's wreckage, fearing bodies. Sunday, the West Pensacola Volunteer Fire Department expected a storm to top them all.

By ALEX LEARY
Published July 11, 2005

PENSACOLA - The men huddled inside a small office at Fire Station 17 gasped at the television. A twisted sheet of aluminum rocketed past the screen and came precariously close to CNN's Anderson Cooper, on scene in Pensacola.

"There's going to be a decapitation in a minute," firefighter Michael Muck said.

No one answered.

For the men and women of the West Pensacola Volunteer Fire Department, waiting out Hurricane Dennis on Sunday was a tense, familiar experience. Less than a year ago, Hurricane Ivan changed their lives. Never before had they seen such devastation as they rescued more than 40 people.

"I was afraid, I'm not going to say I wasn't," said Anthony Gould, 30. "It hurt inside because each time we entered a house we didn't know if we'd find anyone alive.

So they readied for the worst as Dennis headed toward Pensacola.

"Things will not be the same in a couple of hours," deputy chief Nick Servon warned at 10 a.m. as metal shields were lowered over the station's bay doors.

A half-hour later, the group held hands in prayer.

Then they played Texas Hold'em, smoked cigarettes and talked to family on cell phones as Dennis roared their way. A cook made hamburgers.

A few watched nervously through a glass door as the rain and wind pelted the side of the building and water seeped in. One firefighter grabbed a mop. The next two hours as Dennis made landfall, the 20 people at the station girded themselves for the task ahead.

Just before 4 p.m., it was time to head out, just as they did for Ivan.

As the bay doors were raised, it seemed oddly serene outside. Only a few limbs were down and a trickle of cars went by on North W Street. One driver waved. A man and a woman were across the street at Outlaws Car Stereo, walking dogs.

"It's what we can't see," Muck, 47, warned the younger firefighters stepping into bright yellow suits and checking their headgear.

They kept talking about Dennis making history, of it being one of the worst storms ever.

Servon jumped into a Ford Explorer while the others hopped onto two fire engines. They drove past modest homes still bearing the scars of Ivan.

A few streets down Servon came upon a massive oak with a mobile home underneath.

"We better check to see if anyone is inside," he said.

A man came up and said it was empty, brought in to replace a home destroyed by Ivan.

The uprooted tree, he said, was weakened by the previous storm. Next door, Latin music could be heard.

The Ford Explorer continued to wind through the city streets, past people clearing limbs from their yards and lining up at convenience stores. Servon stopped at C.A. Weiss Elementary School where the fire alarm was activated.

There was no fire, however, only a lot of water in a hallway and a computer lab.

The roof was still in need of repair from Ivan, Servon noted.

Across the street Buddy Walker, 39, and his family stood on their front porch. They too had braced for disaster. The wind was strong and the rain, Walker said. But as far as damage, it was nothing like Ivan. This was a baby hurricane compared with Ivan.

He said it took him 10 minutes to clear the limbs from his yard, putting them in a neat pile by the street. During Ivan the task took 3 days.

Walker was without electricity but a generator hummed in the background. Is that for your refrigerator? Naw, he replied, grinning. "It's for my TV. I've got the NASCAR race on."

In the end, Servon and his crews did not encounter much damage other than some downed trees and power lines, and a scattering of battered store signs.

"This wasn't at all what we expected," said Jessica Goodwin, 17, Servon's administrative assistant. "That's a good thing because we had a lot of rebuilding to do. Everyone was saying this was going to finish us off, wipe out Pensacola."

Braced as they were to find dead bodies, they were grateful Dennis did not live up to the grim predictions.

"It's a big relief," Servon said.

[Last modified July 11, 2005, 07:30:56]