The 128-page "Ivan!" book has arrived at the Greenville Newspapers office, creating a stir among residents of the Camellia City.

Greenville Mayor Dexter McClendon said everyone in Butler County should pick-up a copy.

"It is a great looking book," said McClendon, flipping through page after page of glossy photographs featuring Butler and Crenshaw counties and first-hand accounts to the destruction Hurricane Ivan visited upon the area last September.

"These pictures bring back lots of memories and lots of chill bumps," said McClendon.

Ivan tore through the Alabama Gulf Coast on Sept. 16, 2004 on a path that took the Category 3 storm directly near the towns of McKenzie, Georgiana and Greenville. Winds gusting well over 100 mph uprooted trees onto homes and roadways, while also knocking power out throughout most of Butler County.

As mayor, McClendon said he's most proud of how the citizens of Greenville responded to the disaster.

"Neighbors helped neighbors," he said. "And as a city, we worked around the clock to get things back running again."

McClendon said the book serves as a reminder of nature's awesome power.

"Now, we realize how fortunate we really were," he said, referring to the recent landfall of Hurricane Katrina, a stronger storm than Ivan and one which devastated parts of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, but caused hardly any damage in Butler County.

"We can never prepare too much for a hurricane," he said.

Greenville resident Sally Piggott purchased two copies of the book and said she was well pleased with the final production. Like McClendon, she said Hurricane Katrina has caused her to re-evaluate what happened last September with Ivan.

"If I had looked at this book two weeks ago it would have been pity time all over again," she said. "But we were blessed. To be honest, looking back, we experienced nothing compared to what 's happening in Mississippi and Louisiana now."

Piggott said the hardest part was doing without electricity.

And again, she said, people dealing in the aftermath of Katrina are in far worse shape.

"Ivan" is available at the Greenville Newspapers office on 103 Hickory St. for the cost of $54.46 per copy.