Hurricanes are sort of like skydiving??

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"There's nothing like a severe storm to put a human being in their proper place," said Prentice Howard, 59, stationed at Naval Station Pascagoula in Mississippi. "I want to experience the power of nature. It sounds dumb to some people but that's the way it is. Sort of like skydiving."

And now the entire artilce:
Hurricane Ivan Roars Toward Gulf Coast

By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - Stragglers streamed toward higher ground Wednesday on highways turned into one-way evacuation routes and pounding surf started eroding beaches as Hurricane Ivan roared toward the Gulf Coast with 135 mph wind.

Ivan could cause significant damage no matter where it strikes, as hurricane-force wind extended up to 105 miles out from the center. Hurricane warnings were posted along a 300-mile stretch from Grand Isle, La., across coastal Mississippi and Alabama to Apalachicola, Fla., but Ivan had turned onto a northerly course, generally toward the center of the warning area, the Alabama and Mississippi coasts.

"We're leaving today. All this is going under," said surfer Chuck Myers who was only taking pictures of the waves Wednesday morning at Gulf Shores, Ala. "We surfed it all day yesterday. It was glorious."

"This is a bad one and people need to get out," Mobile, Ala., Mayor Mike Dow said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Deputies went door-to-door through the night in south Mobile County, instructing residents to evacuate. Some are expected to remain, Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Kirchharr said, but overall "we have received a good response."

Interstate 65 in Alabama was turned into a northbound-only evacuation route Wednesday morning from the harbor city of Mobile to Montgomery. Chemical plants and refineries around Mobile Bay had been closed down.

Roughly 2 million people had been urged or ordered to leave coastal areas, including more than 1.2 million in the New Orleans metropolitan area.

Forecasters said that although Ivan, which killed at least 68 people in the Caribbean, had weakened very slightly to 135 mph Wednesday, it was still an "extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane," and its strength could fluctuate before it crashes ashore early Thursday morning somewhere along the Gulf Coast.

Twelve-foot waves already were booming ashore Wednesday morning at Gulf Shores, Ala., and starting to erode the beach. Light rain had started falling along the Florida Panhandle. A buoy about 300 miles south of Panama City registered waves just over 34 feet high early Wednesday.

"This is the first time I've seen waves this big and we've been coming here for years," said Terry Kilpatrick of Winston County in north Alabama, who was boarding up windows on his condominium units at Gulf Shores.

At 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Ivan was centered about 235 miles south of Mobile and moving north at 13 mph. Forecasters said Ivan could produce a coastal storm surge of 10 to 16 feet, topped by large waves.

Everyone from New Orleans east to Apalachicola, Fla., should be worried because even the tiniest change in the storm track could move the location of the storm's landfall by hundreds of miles, Hector Guerrero, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center (news - web sites), said Wednesday.

"Even a little jog could result in considerable change," he said.

And although Ivan's northerly track suggested landfall would be east of New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin warned that hurricane-force wind still could strike the region.

"We're not quite out of the woods," Nagin said, although he said flooding from Lake Pontchartrain was no longer believed to be a major threat.

The city opened the Louisiana Superdome to people with handicaps or medical problems that kept them from evacuating, and Nagin said a shelter for others would open later in the day.

All bridges out of New Orleans were ordered shut down as of 2 p.m. because of the threat of high wind, and Police Chief Eddie Compass imposed a 24-hour curfew beginning at the same time.

No shelters were available in Baldwin County, Ala., said assistant emergency management director Roy Wulff. The county usually uses schools as shelters, but the wind expected from Ivan "far exceeds the winds those buildings were built to withstand," he said.

Streets were all but deserted Wednesday morning in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and along Mississippi's 75-mile coast, and most homes and businesses, including a number of gas stations, were boarded up.

But at Perdido Key, on the Alabama-Florida state line, a steady stream of drivers stopped along U.S. 98 to look at the churning surf. "This is almost a once-in-a-lifetime view," said Glen Phillips, who has lived in the area since 1967.

No major problems were reported Wednesday on Mississippi's U.S. 49, the four-lane route from the coast north to Jackson, although it had been bumper-to-bumper late into the night, said Gulfport police Lt. Ricky Chapman said. "Right now things are running pretty smooth but it might pick up again" as evacuation holdouts reconsider, he said.

New Orleans is particularly vulnerable to flooding. Up to 10 feet below sea level in spots, it sits between the nearly half-mile-wide Mississippi River and Rhode Island-size Lake Pontchartrain, relying on a system of levees, canals and huge pumps to keep dry.

The city has not taken a major direct hit since Betsy in 1965, when an 8- to 10-foot storm surge submerged parts of the city in 7 feet of water. Betsy was blamed for 74 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

In the New Orleans French Quarter, police stood by Wednesday as tourists took a morning walk, and bars were open.

"I ain't going nowhere cause I ain't scared," Charles "Smitty" Smith, 60, said as he sipped a morning beer at the Double Play bar in the French Quarter. "I don't care where you are. If you're in the eye of a hurricane, it doesn't matter. I believe in the Lord. ... If the Lord wants to take me, take me."

Some people said they wanted to stay to witness the storm's wrath firsthand.

"There's nothing like a severe storm to put a human being in their proper place," said Prentice Howard, 59, stationed at Naval Station Pascagoula in Mississippi. "I want to experience the power of nature. It sounds dumb to some people but that's the way it is. Sort of like skydiving."

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Jeanne was threatening to turn into a hurricane Wednesday in the Caribbean as it approached Puerto Rico. At 11 a.m., it had wind of about 70 mph, just a few mph below hurricane strength, and was about 45 miles south-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Long-range forecasts showed it could be near Florida's east coast as early as the weekend.

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you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....