Okay- here's my Ivan story.
Live in New Orleans- ' disaster waiting to happen'. Don't believe in evacuating, but the local leadership advised everyone to get out of town Wednesday morning. It looked like Ivan was aimed right for the mouth of the river.
So- with an 85 year old, infirm, father and a three year old, we decide to take some friends up on an offer of shelter. They come to pick us up in a big van.
At 3pm Wednesday, we are on the road with at least half of the N.O. area.
It took us until 9PM to reach the eastern limits of the city- a normally 15 minute drive. Another 3 hours to cross a 12 mile bridge to Slidell.
We were headed to north west Mobile county. Got there at 4am. 13 hour trip.
Thursday we realized that Ivan was headed due north to Mobile, so we got used to the idea that we had #1- left New Orleans for nothing, and #2- ended up right in the storm's path.
No worries tho. New, hurricane ready house in hilly country, well boarded up. By 1am the wind was impressive. We had satellite TV and power till 2am. Then the radio said that Ivan had taken a 20 mile jog east, and we wouldn't get the eye.
Honestly- I wasn't worried. All storms have wind to worry about, but it was nice to be in one where we weren't in constant fear of levees breaking and water rising.
Except near the coast, the damage I saw was minimal. NO homes damaged in northern Mobile that I could see. Few trees down, some fences, a pole or two leaning.
The wind where I was reportedly reached 100mph. I"ve seen much worse in Betsy.
Eastern Alabama coast is another story, and the Florida panhandle. But the coastal point of impact is always the worst damage area.
The real misery of Ivan was afterward. NO power, no phone, for a while no water. At 90 degrees that is torture.
After two days, when we came home to an undamaged home, thinking of our friends who are suffering, for perhaps two weeks, without power.
Please pray for them all.
You lucked out. If Ivan had turned a few degrees less to the North while off of Yucatan, it would have indeed struck somewhere just west of Southwest Pass. NO would have had the storm surge that they had at Pensacola hit Ponchartrain. That levee, according to the Corps of Engineers site, is marginal for a Cat 3 and probably no good for a Cat 4. It is only a matter of time for NO - "they always turn" is a complete fiction. Unless someone gets really serious about building a truly storm worthy levee system around the entire Metro, and, surge control gates on the major Mississipi distributaries and other nearby passes, one of these days there will be a surge that will top the levees. I have witnessed this on a much smaller scale, and can easily imagine what might happen.