Posted on 08/18/2004 8:18:07 AM PDT by dukeman
CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- As many as a dozen cars pull up in front of Morton's Ace Hardware in a busy hour.
For the most part, their passengers aren't looking for nails or wood.
They want to see the pile of rubble that has become one of the most recognizable images of Hurricane Charley.
Soon, it'll also be one of the most common snapshots in the hands of the area's newest breed of tourists.
Drawn by images of devastation on their television sets and a morbid fascination to see it themselves, the gawkers have come to Charlotte County. They clog up U.S. 41, rubber-necking at shorn rooftops and upended palm trees.
"It's 25 years of my life sitting in wreckage, and they stop by and take a picture. I'm not sure what they're seeing," said Joe Waksler, who runs the family hardware business. "I see seven days a week of work, 25 employees who are out of a job."
Waksler said he's too numb to resent the voyeurism, but plenty of others are getting sick of the camera-toting sightseers.
Luke Graham's family home on Vasco Street in Punta Gorda is another favorite photo op. Powerful wind blew their shed completely across the street into brush and ripped the roof right off the garage. The whole house is a little off kilter.
"I love the idea that our misfortune can be somebody else's evening entertainment," Graham said with intended irony.
So he has found a way to share that sentiment.
Whenever he catches someone taking a picture of his house, he poses for the camera -- with his middle finger extended.
Down the street, Windmill Village Mobile Home Park is the site of some of the storm's worst devastation.
Twisted metal that was once the exterior walls of mobile homes rests over power lines and wraps around trees. There's nothing but debris where homes once sat.
The site is so unbelievable that some people have snapped a picture for proof.
Residents got tired of obliging with no benefit to themselves, so someone scrawled "Sightseers $50.00 donations" on a piece of plywood and left an empty coffee can for the collection.
On Tuesday, two rocks were all that was in the can.
Debra Ashley says she can see why some people want a record of the storm's damage.
She sent her kids out of state for safety, and thinks one day, when they're older, they'll want to see what it looked like when a Category 4 hurricane came to their hometown.
She took a few pictures Tuesday while grabbing some hot dogs with her husband at a roadside stand offering food for donations.
But Ashley said what she did is different than what a lot of other amateur historians do.,p>
Ashley said she has actually seen people just stop driving in the middle of the road to take a photo.
She said there are a lot of out-of-state license plates around lately and she doesn't think it's just snowbirds behind the wheel.
"We're trying to get to the store to get some medicine and there are three cars in front of us taking pictures," she said.
As she's talking, another driver pulls up in front of the Morton family's destroyed store and whips out his camera.
Robert Nemeth looks a little embarrassed when he's asked why he's taking a picture.
"You don't mind, do you?" he said. "I usually shop here."
Tom Brown, manager of the hardware store, is flattered when he hears the customer just wants to remember the store.
"I know at some point, we have to take a picture," Brown said. "But I just can't do it yet."
bmp
ROTFL!! Good for him!
Incidentally, I'm currently reading a book you might fine interesting. It's called I Don't Have Enough Faith to be An Atheist, by Norman L. Gdisler and Frank Turek. It takes a systematic approach to the logical and scientific arguments in favor of the existence of God and the identity of Christ. And it uses terms that even I can understand......
Thanks for the Charley update. Got friends right in the middle of that mess....and it truly is a mess for those folks.
They are REALLY hurting down there.
Just too many of these neighborhoods in Florida....hopefully after Charley this will be corrected.
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