Hurricane Charley: Aftermath: Major damage and loss of life.

NBC-2 still has their feed online. Charlotte county EM just got off the phone said, they have thousands of homes destroyed. Half of the counties fire stations were also destroyed. They also mentioned that they think that based on what they have seen thus far, that Charley will compare to Andrew.

Edit: They just showed some video from the air.... whole mobile home parks are practically gone. They also said that Northern Captiva Island is now two islands.... a 400yard gap now seperates the two.
Aaron
 
They could take a cue from Ship Island, MS, and name the gap "Charley Cut." I don't doubt the 140-mph wind reports now. :(

And another TV station:
WKMG-TV Orlando www.local6.com
 
The last report I have is:

•estimated $6 billion damage
•15 confirmed dead
•>2,000 injured
•60 body bags ordered to Punta Gorda
•extensive damage to both trailer parks and neighborhoods of proper houses
•>700,000 homes without power

It seems that this was the most intense hurricane to strike FL since Andrew.

Most news stories here have commented on how no-one was really completely prepared because the storm was expected to strike further north, around Tampa. They also noted that over 2 million were ordered to evacuate, but less than half did. One could say that there was an element of complacency in residents, for there haven't been many strong storms — or just many, period — in the area for some time. The storngest to hit this part of FL before now was Donna in 1960. Between then and Charley, only 3 storms have hit this coast by approaching from the SW — Isbell (cat-1) in 1964, Irene (cat-1) in 1999, and Dennis (TS) in 1981. Other storms, like Gordon (TS) in 1994, Dottie (TS) in 1971, Floyd (cat-1) in 1987, and Andrew (approx. cat-3) in 1992 have only minimally affected this region: Charlotte and Lee counties. Also, the last really big storm to head right at them, cat-3 Elena in 1985, swung away at the last minute, which couldn't have helped.
 
I am having a hard gauging what things are like down there since I am in Greece right now. Any comparisons to Andrew? Worse? I remember it took a few days before the effects of Andrew were felt.
 
:(
My heart goes out to all affected by Charley.
Looking at the on line links and other reports over here on broadband it is hard for those not involved to understand the severity of the situation.
I have heard from members of a Yahoo group I belong to who escaped with just minor damage.
Best wishes and hope day to day life gathers some form of routine soon.
 
arcadia

My sister-in-law and her family live in Arcadia, about 20 miles inland. A tree came down and smashed their car, and they lost some shingles off the roof of their home, but otherwise they are OK (though without power and water). However, about 2 blocks away from where they live, whole neighborhoods were "levelled," and the downtown area is a "war zone" with rubble everywhere.
 
Originally posted by B Ozanne
I am having a hard gauging what things are like down there since I am in Greece right now. Any comparisons to Andrew? Worse? I remember it took a few days before the effects of Andrew were felt.
Click to expand...

I went through Andrew in '92. The comparisons to Charley as I see it are similar but on a much smaller scale. The damage path Charley created looks very much like Andrew, however since it hit a much lower populated area, Charley's eye was even smaller and the winds were weaker, the overall event is not as severe as Andrew. One thing I noticed so far is that not many of the homes and businesses had boarded up as compared to what other areas do on the east coast, and it seems as quite of few of the people in the path assumed the hurricane was going to Tampa.

This time around, with more direct media coverage and lessons learned from Andrew, it seems the victims are and will be soon getting the help they need to begin the rebuilding process and not have to wait days and days to get assistance.
 
"I wonder if some of the people that didn't evacuate, couldn't."

No. The evac plan includes methods of mass transportation free of charge.
 
Evan, I'm sorry to hear that this has impacted your family as well. My Uncles and my Grandparents experienced total loss of their homes and all of their belongings. My Dad is down there now helping them dig through whats left with the hopes my grandma can locate some of her pictures and family heirlooms unharmed but so far no luck. I'm leaving for Florida on Wed to help out along with the rest of my family on my Dad's side.

I can relate to your feelings of panic when it seemed that Charley was not going to go north to Tampa but instead hit my family head on. Punta Gorda is/was one of the most beautiful places in Florida. :( My Grandparents evacuated, my Uncles didn't.. what a disaster.


How did your family's property come out?
 
Hey Evan, I hope that your relatives have lucked out, though their houses were obviously in exposed places. I am very glad that you were able to convince them to leave - it was your discussion with me on IRC where I said "I think 955" and you came back with "bleep, it's gonna be 945" or something to that effect that kind of cranked up your intensity about the whole issue and I can understand why now.

Melissa, I wish your family the best as well. Have a safe journey, carry what emergency stuff you can with you, and I hope to hear some stories when you get back

I saved the 8 minutes of film footage that Doug Kiesling posted on WX-Chase, absolutely amazing footage
 
I hope everybody's family down in Florida are okay. Mine were North of the area hit and didn't have to go through the effects like Punta Gorda. Hope your family is okay, Melissa.
 
At 1am ET on Friday, my sister and her boyfriend decided to abandon their mainly glass (!) home in Valrico and head to Orlando.

Turned out they had to ride it out in ORL in the bathroom of their hotel room.

It took them about 8 hours to get back to Tampa, and they saw many folks with car windows busted out. And on I-4 all the way until they got about 30 miles from home, the road signs were bent at a 90 degree angle or worse, with many of the plywood signs looking like they had been put through a shredder.

Their business site is right on Tampa Bay, so they feel fortunate to have not lost the business!

mp
 
That's good they were at least able to make it out of there in the event that something may have happened.

I would have been one of those to stick it out at the house. I wouldn't have been like that 15 years ago, but nowadays, I guess it's just out of stubborness from living around the people that I've lived around.

I don't think alot of the people who stayed behind really expected that it was going to be as bad as it was going to be. Charley really kicked into high gear just before hitting that coast.
 
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