By Joan Wilson

Now we are at that horrible time again – Hurricane Season – and this is the 10^th anniversary of Hurricane Ivan that hit us on September 11^th 2004. The day after my 70^th birthday. Yes I am 80 TODAY!!

This is the poem I wrote about that traumatic event.

“IVAN” – THE TERRIBLE

“What?! You going to celebrate your 70^th birthday,

But you never heard hurricane coming our way?”

“You joking, we never had a hurricane for years, I know

The last big one I believe was about 60 years ago.”

“Well, I can tell you we’ve booked a place to celebrate

And if Ivan is coming he better not be late

With plenty friends and good food, we’ll sit and dine

Something we haven’t done for a long, long time.”

Well, celebration is over and we all departed

Winds are blowing hard the hurricane has started.

Getting through the night was very nervous indeed

Ivan was approaching with his gear in high speed.

We couldn’t do much to stop him, we could only batten down,

Plywood and shutter from shops all around

Talk about chaos with queues of people scared

Hardware, and supermarkets, gas stations everywhere.

Winds picking up and bits flying overhead

“167 miles per hour,” the weatherman said,

“With heavy gusts of 200 miles per hour and more.”

Ivan was a category 5 hurricane not 4!

You think Andrew and Gilbert were bad when they came

Ha! Ivan put both of those hurricanes to shame!

With 5 to 10 foot of water rising downstairs

We could do nothing but say our prayers.

Appliances gone, and our gas and water mains cut

Vehicles flooded and completely full of dirt,

Winds still howling and our roof shaking

Still we sat very calm and kept on praying.

For almost 24 hours Ivan fury kept pounding us

Spitting out caskets and turning metal to rust,

Big boats anchored and thought securely tied

Wrenched free and hurtled away for almost a mile.

Imagine, 95% of homes were damaged

And almost half our cars destroyed,

We looked like a country that had suffered many wars.

Trees down, homes down and everywhere scarred.

But still we are grateful to God for sparing us

Putting our faith in Him and in Him always trust

For He is the maker of the universe He built in 7 days

So we’ll give Him all the glory and trust Him always.

Six weeks later the trees are all budding green

Ivan was an experience for most of us not seen

So pick up the pieces and live your life again

An experience like Ivan we’re unlikely to see again.