Posted on 08/14/2004 4:43:14 PM PDT by Pikamax
Bush tours hurricane ravaged Punta Gorda
DAVID ROYSE
Associated Press
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush marveled at damage from Hurricane Charley by air and on the ground Saturday, stopping to give encouragement to people who have lost all they have, comfort the homeless and assess damage.
"Wow," Bush said on several occasions during a sobering one-hour flight on a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter over some of the hardest-hit areas. His chopper touched down for a briefing from Charlotte County emergency management officials and Bush promised help was coming.
Bush, whose brother President Bush planned to visit on Sunday, flew over at least four of the mobile home parks that dot the area and suffered heavy destruction.
"That whole place is just gone," the governor said while flying over one mobile home park. "Look at them all turned over there, look at all this debris," Bush said to Federal Emergency Management Agency undersecretary Mike Brown.
At the Charlotte County Emergency Management Center, Bush assured workers that things would get better.
"In a couple of days this thing is going to be transformed with lots of help," Bush told one worker in the crowded command center near the airport, where there was also considerable damage, including overturned planes and buildings with their roofs torn off.
Bush's helicopter tour started in Fort Myers, where damage was light. From there he was flown up the Gulf Coast over the barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva, where damage to expensive homes looked to be light.
Flying inland along Charlotte Harbor, the helicopter passed over a golf course that had most of its fairways completely ripped up, leaving it looking like a giant course of sand with a few patches where the greens were.
But the mobile home parks, with clumps of twisted metal wrapped around trees, and others simply disintegrated, were where the most notable damage was.
Bush then got in a caravan and drove through a heavily damaged neighborhood on the way to downtown Punta Gorda.
The motorcade passed more neighborhoods of mobile homes that were completely demolished.
It was hard to know exactly what route the governor was traveling because almost every street sign had either been uprooted or bent over to the ground. The convoy passed large unidentifiable hunks of metal that littered the street and yards.
Downtown in front of the Turtle Club, Bush walked up to thank the management, which was handing out free sandwiches and bottled water to people who needed it.
Bush was then approached by a young Vietnamese man, Van Pham, and his wife Van Le, who owned a nail salon in downtown Punta Gorda.
Fighting tears, the man told him that he had put all he had into the small business.
"Everything we've got is gone," Pham said. He said his house had also suffered some damage, but "the business is what's important to us.... I depend on work to make mortgage - rent - payments."
Bush comforted Pham with an arm around the shoulder and said the government was working fast to try and get people registered for federal aid and small business loans. FEMA's Brown gave him a number to call to try and get the process started.
From downtown, Bush's convoy passed business after business that was completely destroyed. Office buildings were without roofs, storefronts demolished.
Bush then stopped at the Cultural Center of Charlotte County, which had served as a shelter. Many of the several hundred people who spent the night after the storm had gone home, but about 30 others, mostly elderly and people with medical problems, remained.
There, Brown comforted Bertha Chachere, whose home was badly damaged - a reminder for her of another home she lost in Hurricane Andrew 12 years ago.
"It was like a flashback reminder," Chachere said of Charley. "The wind was horrendous. It was very scary."
She said a tree went through her current home in Port Charlotte.
"It's not livable," she said. She also hasn't been able to contact a son and daughter in Fort Lauderdale, and is worried because she didn't show up for her job as a housekeeper at a nursing home.
"I have a lot of anxiety," Chachere said. "There's no phones available. I hope I'll be able to get assistance."
Bush planned on returning to the area on Sunday, he said.
"We're going to have an ongoing presence here," he said.
I've been to Punta Gorda a number of times over the years, including summers there as a boy in the 60's and 70's. Much of the more modern "mall-type" growth since then has occurred in an area just to the north of Punta Gorda called Murdock. So Punta Gorda still retained an old Florida look and feel (shaded residential neighborhood streets, wood frame houses with porches, antiques, etc.). It was this old portion that really got clobbered. I feel for the folks there....
since almost all of the damage there was wind related - people's regular insurance policies should pay off I think.
That is so sad about the historical district being wiped out. I have seen some of the 'old Florida' type neighborhoods, so graceful and lovely.
I hope they rebuild in that old style.
As I asked on another thread, is there anybody who knows where Malone Avenue is in Port Charlotte? My aunt and uncle and two cousins evacuated but don't know if their houses still stand. they were on Malone.
Thank you! Dang. It looks bad. Seems like the major sweep went down the Tamiami Trail. Malone just off the Tamiami. You know, I could have used Yahoo to look that up myself. Thanks for going to the trouble. I am anxiously waiting for calls to be returned from various cousins. (I have 25 of them on Dad's side.)
Well, we're a big family and if they got wiped out we can pull together.
Also, what is very unique about Punta Gorda is their historic district, with historic residential homes, is right alongside the water, bordering Charlotte Harbor. In other FL towns there are hotels, high rise condos along the water, but not in Punta Gorda. All these little cottages are below sea level.
Where are the United Nations with all of their International Aid?
Oh wait.. We ARE the International Aid..
Scumbags.
These two counties are GOP counties, or they were in 2000. These people must be put back on their feet. They must not flee the state. We, the country, will need them in November to hold off the abortionists on the left.
Geez - I've got a bunch of relatives ( several cousins , and an aunt ) who live in Punta Gorda ( NY transplants ) . Hope everybody is OK .
My folks used to live near Englewood, which is NW of Punta Gorda. They had a real house with hand cranked steel shutters on the windows. I'm sure it didn't even phase that place.
Englewood made out pretty well in the storm. My in-laws live there. They lost power for a few hours, but all is okay now.
Ironically, some folks from Sarasota's barrier islands evacuated as they were told and headed inland to.......Arcadia! This is the town where the roof of the civic center collapsed as it was being used as a storm shelter. Thankfully, I understand no one was hurt.
Good news!
My folks reported back to me that they encountered literally HUNDREDS of trucks, fire trucks, utility trucks, etc on the way to Florida - they drove down here amid all of them, said there were Illinois Power trucks and even vehicles from Lubbock, Texas in the pack. Thanks a bunch, folks, we can really use the help!
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