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Gulf Coast Begins Clean Up After Dennis Moves On
Written by
Lesly C. Simmons
, Staff writer and photographer, RedCross.org
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 — Pensacola, Fla.—The day after Hurricane Dennis made landfall in Florida, Gulf Coast residents began the clean up from the latest major hurricane to hit the area in less than a year.
“The trees in the back came down and gouged a big hole in the roof,” said Troy Jones, who works at the Groovin’ Noovin’ Food Store in Pace, Fla.
Pace, located in Escambia County in Florida’s Gulf Coast region southeast of Pensacola, saw the eye of the storm pass over as it came ashore with winds at 120 miles per hour on Sunday.
Florida’s Gov. Jeb Bush met Red Cross and other officials Monday at a state emergency operations center. He urged Floridians to continue heeding future evacuation requests despite the impact of Hurricane Dennis. (Photo credit: Lesly Simmons). |
“It’s not near as bad as it was last year after Ivan, mostly because we never put it all back together after the last time,” said Jones. The shop is also a Shell gas station, and after Hurricane Ivan the owners decided not to replace the canopies over the gas pumps because of the risk they posed during major storms.
Hurricane Ivan hit last September just a few miles west along the Gulf, and many residents in the area were still recovering from that storm when they started preparing for this one.
“I sent my family away, but I stayed here because I had to work today and I knew we would probably have to do some cleaning up at the store," said Jones. "I didn’t think it would be this bad this time around though. It’s going to be a while before we get open again.”
Area resident Leslie Levi also compared Dennis to Ivan, as many Floridians did in the aftermath.
“I’ve been living in a trailer since Ivan hit last year, and thank God the storm wasn’t too bad at my house [in Escambia County],” said Levi. “I just got the new shingles put on the roof last week and I didn’t want to see Dennis blow them away.”
Levi sustained more than $42,000 worth of damage to his home last year and is living in a trailer while the repairs are completed.
A tree fallen across a home in Pace, Fla., like this one has become a familiar site to many in the wake of a hurricane. A man in Georgia was killed after Dennis’ heavy rains caused a tree to fall on his home, trapping him. (Photo credit: Lesly Simmons). |
At the same time Florida Gov. Jeb Bush urged people not to become complacent because of the relative amount of damage Dennis caused.
“It’s the natural tendency to compare our experiences to what we already know,” Bush said during a visit to the state emergency operations center in Okaloosa County, Fl. “But no hurricane is better than another, no matter what it is. Some people may not have sustained any damage, but there is still plenty of destruction. Think about those people who just got through the gruesome process of working with their insurance companies, and now they have to go through it all again."
President Bush declared 38 counties in Mississippi, 13 counties in Florida, and 45 counties in Alabama as federal disaster areas, meaning they will be eligible for grants and low interest loans from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Along other parts of the Gulf Coast in Mississippi and Louisiana, the signs of relief over the passing of Dennis were plainly evident. Many businesses were still boarded up and closed, but the visible damage was minimal. Families were out on the beaches, and a church sign read “Dennis Missed Us, and We Are So Thankful.”
All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the Midwest ice storms, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org.
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