by Pat Peterson
Published: Wed, September 16, 2009 - 4:20 pm CST
Last Updated: Wed, September 16, 2009 - 6:00 pm CST
PERDIDO KEY, Florida - Lamar Dean built his waterfront dream-home in Grande Lagoon in 1981. In just a few hours, Hurricane Ivan shattered his dreams...and the lives of many of his neighbors.
"The destruction was awful, it was a scary feeling, it took a while to get over the shock," says Dean. "We were scattered, a lot of people lost their investments, we had to wait on insurance."
When Ivan made landfall on September 16th, 2004, near the Alabama-Florida state line, many people evacuated. A few in Grande Lagoon stayed...seven people lost their lives in the storm.
"Lost some good friends and that's the worst part, the rest we can always build back," says Dean. "Life is good here. If you live in California you have to worry about earthquakes. If you live in Missouri, you have to worry about tornadoes."
Five years later, Grande Lagoon is still rebuilding. The community, however, is just a shell of what it once was. Ivan left permanent scars here.
Dean says he'll rebuild and calls Grande Lagoon his little piece of paradise.
Hurricane Ivan killed 25 people in the United States and caused more than 13 billion dollars in damage.
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