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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:24
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quote:
Fairfax architect's Florida dome home still standing
By Jim Welte, IJ reporter
The Pensacola Beach, Fla., dome home designed by Fairfax architect Jonathan Zimmerman passed the Hurricane Ivan test yesterday, allowing network news crews holed up in the home to sleep soundly through the worst part of the devastating storm.
Most of the homes and buildings around it on the coast of the Florida panhandle, however, didn't fare nearly as well.
"Eighty percent of the structures around us are beyond repair," said Mark Sigler, who owns the home and who stayed in it Wednesday night along with television crews from ABC News and NBC Nightly News.
"But it was nice and quiet inside the home," Sigler said. "At the point the storm was at its strongest, it was just after midnight, and we were all pretty tired, so we just went to sleep and slept right through it."
NBC News correspondent Kerry Sanders, who stayed in the home Wednesday night with his camera crew, complimented Zimmerman for a designing a structure that could withstand such a powerful storm. In an e-mail message, Sanders said the dome home gave him and his crew the rare chance to stay in Pensacola Beach - now a virtual island as most of the access roads to it have flooded or collapsed - during the storm.
"Our payoff, of course, is to be able to show the scene now," he wrote. "The barrier island is closed so the only way to show it is to be here already. We were able to do live reports in near-100 mph winds."
"This morning, we had scrambled eggs on a camping stove," he wrote.
The Siglers' home, which was surrounded by water by early yesterday, did suffer some minor damage, but that was part of the plan, Zimmerman said. External stairs were designed to break away easily from the home and prevent any damage to the structure itself, and the stairs did just that, he said.
"It performed exactly like it was supposed to," he said. The shape of the house, he said, was designed to allow the water to literally wash around the house, rather than knock it down, which is what happened.
As a result of the extensive media coverage - television crews from several broadcast channels flocked to the home in the days leading up to Ivan's arrival in Pensacola Beach - Zimmerman won't likely have much trouble finding takers for his dome homes. He's already received calls from people in the Caribbean, Hawaii and England to build similar homes for them.
"But I'm still sorry it happened," he said. "I would much rather remain unknown than for all these other people to have their lives hurt like this."
Zimmerman praised Mark and Valerie Sigler for having the courage to pay for and build the unique home. The dome-shaped home, made of steel-reinforced concrete and able to withstand winds up to 300 miles per hour and a direct hit from a hurricane, was built with the help of a $245,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which certified the design as having met its lofty weather-resistant standards.
"You gotta take your hat off to Mark Sigler," he said. "My reputation was at risk, but his life and livelihood were at risk. I was sitting here comfortably ensconced here in Fairfax, concerned, but his life was on the line."
Zimmerman said he hopes people understand the value of dome-shaped architecture in areas of extreme climate. He is currently working on a dome home for a homeowner in Anchorage, Alaska whose land is in an avalanche zone. Zimmerman's dome-shaped design should allow an avalanche to roll right over it, he said.
"This is how you deal with extreme climates," he said. "Conventional buildings are not going to do it. This should become the standard."
Zimmerman said he was well aware that he was getting his 15 minutes of fame. "A man who toots his own plays a tune that nobody wants to hear," he said.
But he said he was hopeful that the dome home's survival of the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Ivan provides a vivid reminder to architects, contractors and builders in areas of extreme climates.
"We need more people who are qualified to design these kinds of buildings and more people who are qualified to build them," he said. "These are the kinds of structures that should be used in commercial buildings for sanctuary. Instead of these mass evacuations you see all the time, if you know you can go into a place where you're going to be safe, that's a better strategy."
"It takes something like this for people to listen to me," he said.
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http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,14...2408454,00.html
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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:24
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As for the rest of Florida...
quote:
Ivan Rattles Gulf Coast, Leaves 33 Dead
Email this Story
Sep 17, 3:45 PM (ET)
By PAULINE ARRILLAGA
Trevor Blackburn, center, helps his father and others clear personal items from the home of John Warren, in Marianna, Fla., Friday, Sept. 17, 2004. Warren's home was destroyed by a tornado associated with Hurricane Ivan (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - The storm that was Hurricane Ivan extended its deadly march across the South on Friday, destroying homes, swamping streets and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas.
Ivan was the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States since Floyd in 1999, but it could have been worse. In all, the hurricane was blamed for 70 deaths in the Caribbean and at least 33 in the United States, 14 of them in Florida.
The storm's remnants battered the southern Appalachians on Friday. And more bad news awaits: Tropical Storm Jeanne looms in the Atlantic on a track toward the southeastern United States - and, possibly, Florida.
More than 1.8 million homes and businesses were without power Friday.
The owner of this house on Cape San Blas kneels to pray in front of the rubble, Friday, Sept. 17, 2004, in Cape San Blas, Fla. The home was destroyed by the winds and waves of Hurricane Ivan as it passed through the area on Wednesday night. When asked if he would rebuild in the same location, he stated that he was insured and would take the money and do good with it, whatever that might be. (AP Photo/Phil Coale)
"People are just sick of it," groaned Dennis Mace, who as a handyman is one of the few Floridians benefiting after the third hurricane in five weeks assaulted the Sunshine State. Hunting for work in the wake of Ivan, Mace spotted a sign that summed up the feelings of many:
It read: "1 Charley, 2 Frances, 3 Ivan, 4 Sale."
Ivan weakened after coming ashore, but it continued to spin off tornadoes and cause flooding across the South, already soggy after Hurricanes Charley and Frances. Up to 9 inches of rain fell on parts of Georgia.
In North Carolina, Ivan's heavy rain and wind forced evacuations along rivers, knocked out power to nearly 220,000 customers and sent trees crashing into homes across the western part of the state. At least six people died there. The hurricane's remnants also prompted flood warnings in 34 eastern and middle Tennessee counties, where forecasters predicted up to 7 inches of rain.
By late morning Friday, the storm's remnants were centered about 45 miles east of Knoxville, Tenn., at the state's eastern tip.
Bryan Atwell, right, helps look through debris at his mother-in-law's home that was destroyed by a tornado associated with Hurricane Ivan, in Marianna, Fla., Friday, Sept. 17, 2004. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Ivan came ashore with 130 mph winds near Gulf Shores Beach, Ala., around 2 a.m. CDT Thursday, but it was the Panhandle - squarely in the northeast quadrant of the storm, where the winds are most violent - that took the brunt. More than 2 million residents along a 300-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Panama City, Fla., were told to clear out as Ivan closed in.
In Escambia County, home to Pensacola and some 300,000 residents, at least seven people died in the storm, including one who suffered a heart attack at a shelter.
"Some of the houses, everything inside was gone out of one side - like a heavy wave of water hit it and spit the stuff inside of the house out," Sheriff Ron McNesby said.
Electricity, water and sewer services could take weeks to be restored, Escambia County emergency management chief Michael Hardin said Friday.
"We've got a long haul ahead of us," Hardin told NBC's "Today."
Edie Kearns, left, is helped by neighbor John Warren, at her home that was destroyed by a tornado associated with Hurricane Ivan, in Marianna, Fla., Friday, Sept. 17, 2004. Warren lost his home to the tornado also. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Off Gulf Shores Highway, in a neighborhood nestled along Pensacola's Grand Lagoon, at least a half dozen homes and businesses were demolished - some swept clear off their foundations.
The hiss and stench of leaking gas filled the air as stricken residents waded through calf-high water collecting what belongings they could.
Doug Pacitti, a deck hand on a charter fishing boat, lived with his friend and 4-year-old son across the street from the bay. On Thursday, he stepped over crumbled bricks, broken dishes and plywood to survey what was left of the house he rented.
Where the kitchen should have been, silverware and skillets sat under an open sky. The refrigerator was propelled into the back yard, where it came to rest under a fallen pine tree.
"Everything's gone - everything," said Pacitti, 31. "Three thousand dollars worth of fishing poles. The antique dishes my grandmother gave me - gone. Even my kid's toys."
An office chair lies half-buried in sand atop a beachfront road in Gulf Shores, Ala., Friday, Sept. 17, 2004. The souvenir store in the background was badly damaged by Hurricane Ivan. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)
A storm surge of 10 to 16 feet spawned monster waves. A portion of a bridge on Interstate 10, the major east-west highway through the Panhandle, was washed away.
Search and rescue missions in Florida continued, but no new storm victims were found early Friday, Santa Rosa County spokesman Don Chinery said. A National Guard convoy left Tallahassee early Friday to deliver food, ice, water and other supplies to hard-hit areas, and counties hoped to get relief centers set up later in the day.
About 430,000 homes and businesses in eight Panhandle counties - nearly all of Gulf Power Co. (GUL)'s customers - were without power. Alabama still had 880,000 customers without power; Georgia, 223,000; and Mississippi, 65,000.
Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown said search and rescue workers may have to use aircraft to get to hard-hit areas that are cut off by washed-out roads.
"Virtually the entire state of Florida is a disaster area," Brown told CBS'"Early Show.""These people are just worn out from these storms."
Insurance experts put Ivan's damage at anywhere from $3 billion to $10 billion. Hurricanes Charley and Frances had combined estimated insured damages between about $11 billion and $13 billion after striking Florida in the past month.
The troika of hurricanes - Charley, Frances and Ivan - have the potential to give Florida's $50 billion tourist industry a "black eye" in the long term, said Abraham Pizam, dean of the University of Central Florida Rosen College of Hospitality Management.
President Bush planned to visit Alabama and Florida to survey the damage on Sunday, the White House said.
In Louisiana, Gov. Kathleen Blanco was thankful for Ivan's narrow miss.
"Louisiana truly is blessed," Blanco said, asking evacuees to "remember to be thankful that most people are returning to safe, sound, whole homes."
If Louisiana was blessed, Florida remained cursed.
"It's sad," said a weary Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. "I don't know quite why we've had this run of storms. You just have to accept that."
By the hurricane center's tally, counting deaths directly caused by a storm as it hits, Ivan was the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Floyd killed 56 people in 1999. Ivan's unofficial death toll included 14 in Florida, three in Mississippi, one in Alabama, four in Georgia, one in Tennessee and six in North Carolina. In Louisiana, four evacuees died after being taken from their storm-threatened homes to safer parts of the state.
For Floridians weary of all the worry, aggravation and heartache of the past month, there was one final number to consider Friday: There are 73 days left in the hurricane season.
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Editor's Note: Associated Press reporters Brent Kallestad, Bill Kaczor, Matt Crenson and David Royse in Florida, Jay Reeves in Gulf Shores, Ala., Holbrook Mohr in Pascagoula, Miss., Bill Poovey in Spring City, Tenn., and Paul Nowell in Sapphire, N.C., contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov |
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040917/D855JTKO1.html
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17-09-2004 19:30
So it's been a grey and dreary here today. Spawned a tornado in Naples.
It's the storm that will not die!!!!
. They seem to think that after these things have winds less than 40 mph they should be ignored as major systems. Clearly this line of thinking is going to have to be redone. Ivan's low pressure just drew in moisture like a sponge, as I'm sure those in PA, NJ, and OH will tell you. I just got power after 5 days in NC. Trees down everywhere. It was pretty crazy.
ACK!
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