Ten years ago today, Hurricane Ivan took a lot from Pensacola.

The Category 3 storm roared ashore in the middle of the night. Those howling winds and driving rain tore our community asunder.

The storm damaged more than $5 billion worth of buildings and infrastructure. It cost countless hours in repair and rebuilding. People lost their homes, their belongings, some lost their lives.

It was a grim, terrible storm that took years to recover from.

I prefer to think of what Hurricane Ivan gave me.

My wedding day was two days after Ivan made landfall. Rather than the event I had planned, I got a guerrilla wedding. A scaled down, electricity-free version of the Big Day.

I got potable water and Oreos for my reception. I got the dubbed version of Coldplay’ “Clocks” from a friend’s car stereo for my first dance as a wife. I got faint while we took wedding photos.

I got to throw a suitcase into my car and drive to the Mobile Regional Airport, where I spent my wedding night.

I got free dessert at the Carrabba’s in Mobile because the waitress took pity on my husband and me.

And while that may seem like a lot, I got even more.

I had friends and family who came to ride out the storm’s landfall with me at my house, stayed to watch me get married and then headed north to their homes.

I had a hot shower because my grandparents-in-law had a natural gas water heater.

I had flowers because my mother-in-law put roses in among her hurricane supplies.

I had a maid of honor who drove south down Interstate 65 toward the hurricane with a stash of bottled water and nonperishable food to stand beside me at the altar.

I had a woman rush up to my table at a restaurant in Napa, Calif., who was originally from Pensacola and wanted to know if it really was as bad as it looked on CNN.

I got to see Vince and Anna Whibbs among my wedding guests. He with that charming smile, she with a beautiful hat and gloves — and nary a bed of sweat of her face — both wishing me as long and happy a married life as they had had.

I got to see the cross go back up on the top of Old Christ Church. I got to see the Main Street Seer Plant moved off the downtown waterfront.

I got to see a community I love pick itself up and put the pieces together. I got to be part of a professional team of journalists who worked with devotion to the cause and to their community because this news story happened to us — all of us.

I got a husband who kept his head in a crisis and made it OK for me to have a minute to lose mine. He let me have my cry, but he didn’t let me wallow in a poor, poor pitiful me party.

And a couple of years later, I got these two sweet angel babies for my troubles.

Ten years after Ivan, I know I came out ahead.

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