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After the Storm, Couple Finds Reason to Celebrate
Kate Fowlie , Special to RedCross.org
Monday, September 20, 2004 — BREWTON, Ala. – After she lost her home and nearly her life to Hurricane Ivan, Brandy Turner learned she actually had reason to celebrate.
Brandy Turner, 29, of Atmore is living in an American Red Cross shelter in Brewton, Alabama after Hurricane Ivan destroyed her trailer home.. |
The 29-year-old Atmore resident recently discovered she was five and a half weeks pregnant after she and her husband have been trying to conceive for two years.
“I am homeless but I am having a baby,” she said with a smile as she sat on a cot in the American Red Cross’s shelter at Brewton Elementary School in Brewton, Ala.
Brandy Turner and her husband, David Turner, had decided to weather out Hurricane Ivan in their trailer home, expecting that Atmore would escape Ivan’s full force. However, the Category 3 hurricane ended up passing directly through Escambia County early Thursday, destroying homes, downing trees and power lines and leaving most of the area’s 38,000 residents without electricity.
The couple passed a terrifying night wrapped in a carpet and huddled on the floor of their trailer.
“You could hear the tin roof buckling. You know how a car wash is? That’s how it felt and sounded. We prayed so God took care of us, and he gave us a blessing on top of that,” she said, patting her abdomen. She added that she has no plans to name the baby Ivan or Ivanette though people have asked her if she would.
The couple lost everything but the clothes on their backs. Until they can get back on their feet, the Turners will live in the Red Cross shelter.
She said they are grateful for the Red Cross’s help. “I’m thankful they’re here,” she said.
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