[Abigail Adams]

Thanks for the report! Prayers for all.

[big'ol_freeper]

You all are in our prayers. You answered a question I was wondering about as I checked all the information sources coming out of the area...that was how the other areas around Ft. Myers made out. I have a dear friend living in North Fort Myers and was very concerned for him and his lovely wife. God Bless.

[commish]

THanks for the update P., Glad to hear you and yours are safe.

[Bahbah]

CFC, here's a report from Charley's ground zero.

[ChocChipCookie]

Thanks for taking the time to report this. This is terrible news. Just terrible. :o(

[pt17]

Thanks for the report and prayers for all who were hurt by this.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Thank you for your informative post.

[litehaus]

Prayers for all the folks down your way........

[kingattax]

i was watching the weather channel yesterday and i couldnt

believe they kept saying landfall would happen in tampa even

as late as 2;00 PM.

the forecasters blew this call big time...terrible

[TXBubba]

Thanks for the report. Does anyone here have any more info. on the Orlando area? We have family there. They are out of town and understand their house is "okay". They said the airport there was still closed so they don't know if they have a car or not. Any news reports on that area?

[steve86]

No one here expected the hurricane to hit, the forecasters kept telling us it was going to hit 120 miles north. We were stunned when Charley was upgraded from a low category II to a dangerous category IV just hours before it hit.

That tells the whole story. In this case, some of the "best informed" (i.e. listened to the professional forecasters; apprised of the computer model predictions) were likely among the most bewildered as the rapid turn of events unfolded. Prayers to all.

[Guillermo]

will cost much more than the insured value of their homes.

I'm almost 100% certain you are wrong on this, because a typical homeowners policy is for the replacementvalue of the house.

[Pete]

I was watching Fox News today when they were interviewing a woman who worked at one of the hospitals. She said something shocking that I have not heard repeated. She reported 150 people DOA and said that it was an early number that was probably higher now. She also said that they were overwhelmed with wounded.

Anybody else see that report?

[BenLurkin]

Stay safe FRiend.

[KC_for_Freedom]

I stayed at an airsteam park named Paridise Park inland from Punta Gorda, any news out of there?

[jcmfreedom]

Thank you for the update. I've been watching CNN and FOX for more information on the area. My favorite vacation spots are Sanibel and Captiva. I've been waiting for information from those islands. One arial view from CNN showed that the lighthouse on Sanibel survived. Most of the condos on the coast appeared from the air to have roof damage. I heard that they received sustained winds of 155-165mph. If you hear anymore information, please share. Thanks.

[dawn53]

Thanks for the report. You made a couple interesting points.

Communities on the north side of the storm path were basically unaffected (other than the shock value of having a hurricane hit this area - first time in 75 years.)

We have friends in Englewood and when we called to check on them were surprised to hear that they had no damage and hardly noticed the storm's impact even though they were very close to Charlotte Harbor, but like you mentioned they were on the north side of the storm.

As to rebuilding: we recently added an addition but had to meet Miami-Dade code (that's the code our county uses) and the cost of our addition was so much more than was originally projected. We called our State Farm Ins. guy and had them raise the replacement value on our home because we realized we simply were not insured for enough due to the new cost of complying with codes when rebuilding. I think (I'm working from memory here, so this might be wrong) they figure building costs with this code are about $100 per sq. ft.

[independentmind]

Do you have any about Venice?

[myprecious]

I received a phone call from my nephew this morning. He rode out the storm about 5 blocks from the Burnt Store Marina in a concret block home. The devestation is beyond belief. One of the mobile home parks with the high body counts is down the street. He says there is a greater loss than we know.

He takes care of about 20 boats at the marina and reports that all of those under his personal care survived without damage - but almost every other craft was destroyed. He began preparations 3 days before, so no whining about no warning from him. He tied down equipment and secured the lines. All held during the storm. The cleanup will take a long time.

It was an answer to prayer that he is safe and was able to set word.

[topher]

FYI: Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda are (were?) ranked in the top ten fastest appreciating real estate markets in the US.

They can also boast of having a 24x7, 365 days a year abortion mill in nearby Fort Myers to help 15 and 16 year girls dispose of their problems...

I had never heard of a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year abortion mill until I checked for area abortion mills in the path of this storm.

Satan would be proud of this facility. I imagine there are some Witches in the area that are proud to offer the unborn babies in sacrifice for spells.