Some Weary Floridians Leaving for Good By BILL KACZOR, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 14, 9:33 AM ET
NAVARRE, Fla. - For Linda Campbell, a minister who conducts weddings on the beach, leaving the waterfront means leaving behind part of her livelihood. But after three hurricanes in a decade — including two in the past 10 months — she and her husband have joined other repeat storm victims who are now planning to sell their Florida Panhandle homes and move away from the water for good.
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"How much more can we take?" asked Campbell, whose barrier island home on Navarre Beach sits near the spot where Hurricane Dennis rolled ashore Sunday. "I kind of feel like I keep experiencing a death over and over again."
Even though Dennis largely spared the home Campbell shares with her aircraft mechanic husband, the recurring stress of evacuating, coming back to see the damage and rebuilding has become too much for either of them to bear.
"This is very emotional," she said. "You get the adrenalin all running for the evacuation, and you get the adrenalin running for coming back to see if your house is completely blown away."
The couple's stilt home was still under construction when Hurricane Opal blew off the top story in 1995. Storm surge during Opal and Hurricane Ivan last year also knocked down the blowout walls on the ground level, causing damage to the all their belongings stored there.
"We got smart with Dennis," Campbell said, noting that she and her husband moved everything, including lawnmowers and motorcycles, upstairs before the storm. They also opened the garage doors and removed windows and entry boards to let the water flow freely, minimizing damage to those structures.
While Dennis did only minor damage to the Campbells' home, it ripped up utilities and roads on Santa Rosa Island, so it could be weeks before they can return home.
In the meantime they're living in their small motor home parked at a friend's house on the mainland and making plans to move to South Florida — someplace inland.
"We really love Florida, but we're leaving the beach," Linda Campbell said.
Three hurricanes couldn't budge retired law professor Charlie Jones, 73, and his wife, Sugie, 63, from their Navarre home on usually peaceful Santa Rosa Sound — but after a fourth, they are also talking about moving inland.
"I don't have the energy now that I had 10 years ago and I don't have, probably, the emotional and spiritual energy," he said. "How can we stand this every seven months?"
First, Hurricane Erin in 1995 blew the shingles off and caused water damage inside. They moved back in after two months, but spent only one night at home before evacuating again. Opal's storm surge crashed through the house, causing even greater damage.
In September, Ivan again pushed the sound's brackish waters into the house, breaking windows and doors and scattering their furnishings and possessions for more than a mile. Dennis then knocked a wall from a neighboring condominium into the Joneses' single-family home, causing damage to their roof.
The Joneses have learned from experience, as well. Two days before Dennis struck, they began lining up contractors who had done past repairs.
A contractor shortage after Ivan forced 62-year-old retired truck mechanic Phillip Smith to repair his Navarre Beach home himself. The prospect of doing it again following Dennis has him, too, strongly considering a move inland.
"It's a depressing feeling," he said while waiting in Navarre for a bus shuttling residents to the beach, where roads remained closed to private vehicles Wednesday. "I've lived there four years and it's just the same-old, same-old after a while. I've seen enough action to move on."
Gail Smith, 67, no relation to Phillip, said she and her retired husband, Charles, 70, also plan to sell their Navarre Beach home. Their first house on the beach was destroyed by Opal. They rebuilt, but their new home has now been damaged by Ivan and Dennis.
"We're too old to do construction work," she said, "and you just can't get workers." |
