Report from Ground Zero - Charley destruction

[alnick]

Sadly, many stayed in their homes. The news services said that if you haven't evacuated by now then "hunker down you've made your decision". Should have been get out and run for your life.

At that point, there's no place to run to, hence the advice to hunker down.

[dawn53]

And yes, you're right, I fully expect my insurance to go up again.

We do live in a masonry home, meet codes, etc., but we also live in Pinellas county.

However, I have friends in the neighborhood whose houses are frame and last year they were having their policies cancelled at an alarming rate. You really have to scramble to find somebody to insure a frame house (I think they had to use the state's insurance fund.)

Like you said, now it'll only get worse.

[Steve_Stifler]

No doubt on the replacement cost issue. Most older homes have ordinary windows. When you rebuild you have to use windows built to a standard developed after Hurricane Andrew. The difference in cost between the two is astronomical and not covered by most replacement insurance policies I've been told.

[Vinnie]

What nonsense!

We will see.

[dawn53]

From what I've heard Orlando fared pretty well.

They say that Polk and northwest Hillsborough got hit pretty hard.

A couple of towns I've heard that were hit hard besides the ones in south Florida were Arcadia and Bartow.

[jpsb]

I hate to agree with sinky but he is right, the forecast was pretty good, clearly the entire coast knew a huricane was comming and EVERYONE knows that huricanes are unpredictable a slight change in track is not unusal, or predictable.

[dawn53]

In fact, originally, they predicted the storm to make landfall between Fort Myers and Tampa, then on Thursday night and Friday all the models started converging on Tampa Bay.

Hey, anybody that's lived in Florida for any amount of time knows that hurricanes will do what they very well please to do.

Those folks in Punta Gorda were under the same evac rules as the folks in Tampa.

Only difference, they must have believed the predicted path was set in stone.

[dawn53]

You're right! Even when we added an addition to our home, we had to upgrade every window in the house to meet the new code. We couldn't just put "code" windows in the addition, every window in the house had to be replaced including the garage window, LOL.

[kittymyrib]

I sympathize with the loss of life, but not the loss of MOBILE HOMES at the water's edge of the Gulf. What are these people thinking? They played the Hurricane Lottery and won for 75 years, but eventually someone will LOSE. NO mobile or pre-fab homes should be allowed in hurricane country...and they certainly should not be repaid with taxpayer funds.

[jpsb]

My rule of thumb is that, 36-24 hrs out where ever the pridicted land fall is, is the best place to be. They never go where they are predicted to go 36-24 hours out. And all us gulf coast residents know that too.

[Giddyupgo]

Here is a first hand article from the HIRT team while they were in the storm: Amazing read!

---

The crew of the Hurricane Intercept Research Team is safe- but just barely. We were just west of Port Charlotte and several miles north of Punta Gorda at the overpass of exit 170 on I-75. We set up our equipment atop of the Chevy Tahoe by around 2:30pm. At 4:32pm or so we took a wind gust to 127 mph just as the eyewall came over our location. Rocks began pelting the vehicle- trees were being ripped apart and the rain was just like an intense car wash- virtually no visibility. We used the overpass as a shelter and there were several other vehicles under there as well- people stuck out in the hurricane.

The wind increased as signs and wood pieces flew by. Trees continued to shred and rip apart. Then- we saw an entire building come apart and its whole roof fly through the air and impact the embankment of the Interstate. At this point the rain coming around the overpass embankment turned muddy- filled with soil. It was roaring so loud that we could not hear ourselves talk. More rocks hit the Tahoe. Then a monster gust hit us and blinded us all with muddy, wind driven rain. This kept on for about 15 to 20 minutes until it let up just for a few seconds.

I could see behind me to our west where a bright light shone through the clouds- like it was clearing out. But this was west of us by a good ways- not just down the street. It was coming from the direction Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. Just then- the biggest gust of the day hit us extremely hard- we heard crashing sounds, glass breaking and all sorts of debris hitting the truck. It was total fury with no visibility at all. The truck was surrounded in blasting wind and debirs. Then- in a matter of seconds, literally, only 3 to 5 seconds, it came to an immediate halt. ZERO wind. The clear spot opened up right over us as the eye passed over head. People got out of their cars and screamed from fear and exhilaration. I grabbed my camera and got out to take a look to our east. I could see the eyewall moving away rapidly- and then a little bit of sunshine broke out.

There was an eerie calm and the pressure kepy dropping to 944.3 mb on our vehicle. I ran up the concrete embankment of the overpass to peak over to the area where there was a hotel and several buildings. The scene was unreal. Large trees was gone, wood was scattered everywhere, light towers were snapped off and large pieces of building and roof material were impacted into the I-75 embankment. Again- I could hear people yelling out and hollering just to release their tension.

Within 5 minutes, the other side of the eyewall passed through. It was almost as bad and came up within just a few minutes. Winds quickly reached 117 mph on the Tahoe with plenty of readings over 100. The pressure rose very quickly as the eye left and the eyewall came back over. We endured another 30 minutes of pure hell once again and then the wind let up enough to see.

As things calmed down- we drove around the immediate area and saw entire buildings collapsed and destroyed. Large street lights were pulled out of the concrete and thrown onto the stoplight powerlines. Cell phone towers were shredded but not toppled. There was debris and glass everywhere. Entire trees were ripped out of the ground and dragged across the pavement. It was an intense event to say the least.

I am now a true believe at the power of the wind. I have seen storm surge and avoid that at all costs- but now that I have been through the eyewall of a category 4 hurricane, I will never place myself in that position again. And to know how many people died as a result of this hurricane is such a sad situation. I survived but only because nothing impacted the truck hard enough to cause injury to me or my crew. Luck is the reason we are okay.

So now I face the future of my hurricane field work. After what I went through with my team- I will not be in the core of a major hurricane ever again. I have been fascinated with hurricanes ever since I was a child and this was far worse than anything I could have ever imagined. I have a solution to the problem of wanting the data and the images without putting lives at risk. I will unveil this solution on my website next week. It was not ready for this mission otherwise I would have used it. I assure you it will be ready for the next major hurricane.

I will post video and data from our mission on HurricaneTrack.com as soon as I can next week. We have a data log of the wind up until one of the anemometers was taken out by debris. This will be an event that I'll never forget. And I am very thankful to be alive.

Mark
http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=37292

[squarebarb]

Anybody know where the street Malone Ave. is in Port Charlotte? Wew have an aunt and uncle and two cousins living on that street. Got a phone call through another cousin that they evacuated and are all right but probably lost their homes. They were modest homes.

I have been reading the info. on insurance with great interest. Aunt and uncle are retired; he from the steel mills in Granite city Illinois.

Thanks for any info.

[HairOfTheDog]

all policies are for replacement value - and the ones that are are only for replacement value of what you HAD, meaning that they're not going to pay for any fancy upgrades.

And why should they, really? If the insured item is a house, you should be paid for the worth of that house, not the newer better one you would build if someone else was paying for it. Insurance policies can be written for anything you like.... but you have to understand that the insurance company is not a charity, it's a business. Trying to make money insuring homes in hurricane country is probably just as tough as trying to ensure people who continue to rebuild in flood plains.

[Puntagorda]

Evacuation would have been difficult . . . there was Hurricane Bonnie to the North, Hurricane Charlie to the South.

Still, a million people evacuated . . . mostly to shelters as all the motel rooms within a 600 mile radius were booked.

Most shelters were full and turning people away 24 hours before the storm hit.

So, with a hurricane to your north, a hurricane to your south, no hotels available, and no shelters . . . do you risk getting caught on I-75 in a cat III hurricane?

And if you did manage to go inland to Arcadia, even Orlando, you would have still been hit.

Evacuation sounds good (and is recommended for those living in mobiles and along the coast), but just where to evacuate to?

That's the question that kept most people in their homes.

PuntaGorda

[ZOTnot]

Oh my! I hope they turn their faces to God, but I fear they will not know the connection between supporting abortion and what has just happened. Only those who are already 'attuned' seem to know what this may signify.

[ZOTnot]

Yes, but do you think they understand the connection?

[ZOTnot]

Yes, but do you think they understand the connection?

[Puntagorda]

Topher,

Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte have one of the oldest per capita populations in the US. Most of the people here are well into their sixties and seventies.

Most are long retired, and living the slow life in Florida.

Your abortion clinic connection does not exist for these two communities.

Get your facts straight

[ZOTnot]

Well said! Hope the person takes note, and reflects upon its meaning, but I doubt it. Doesn't get it.

[dawn53]

Well, Tampa Bay evacuated about a million folks. They started on Thursday afternoon.

First St. Pete evacuated, and then in Tampa at 6 AM on Friday they were told to evacuate.

My MIL was bused by her waterfront retirement home in St. Pete to a sister facility in Sarasota which was inland and well fortified (ironically she had more weather than we did, but it was a safe building, not on the water).

I can't see ANY reason for somebody to stay in a mobile home with a hurricane approaching.

If the shelters were full, then it's the county's fault for not opening more.

I've thought about and I don't believe in trying to outrun a storm by going in the same direction of the storm. If the shelters were full on Thursday, we probably would have headed inland, toward Okeechobee or Clewiston, and stayed in the car if necessary. You just can't stay on a barrier island or in a mobile home during a storm.