Donna Theisen of North Fort Myers, who was at a friend's house with 20 other people off Diplomat Parkway in Cape Coral, is trying to find out whether her home on a canal is left. Looking out the window, she said: "Cape Coral looks like a war zone." There are roofs blown off houses, trees down, pool cages that are nowhere to be found. Theisen said she is frantic to tour the damage in her own neighborhood.
Pine Island Road
Buildings with partially torn roofs, demolished signs over businesses, a flipped trailer and non-working stoplights provided a destructive path along PIne Island Road in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley on Saturday evening.
A caravan of 13 Lee County Sheriff's vehicles were touring PIne Island Road, assessing the damage. Cape police were directing traffic at the corner of Pine Island Road and Del Prado where a travffic light dangled just four feet above the street.
A trailer at business Water 911 was flipped over with its wheels in the air.
West of Chiquita Blvd. on Pine Island Road, firefighters were directing cars away from a power line that hung diagnally above the road, A palm tree had snapped in half and crashed into a power line transformer.
All traffic lights in Cape Coral and North Fort Myers were not working.
Water levelsWater levels in Southwest Cape Coral were rising high enough to flood streets and overflow fresh and saltwater canals as Hurricane Charley started to leave the area about 6 p.m.. Streets were quickly becoming impassible.
An entire row of power poles were down at in the corner of Gleason and Skyline.
Emergency workers and police were dirivng around the area, assessing damage.
Residents also were venturing out on the roadways and cars were getting stuck in the flooded roads.
Cape Coral Hospital lost power, city water and suffered structural damage just past 4 p.m. Friday as Hurricane Charley barreled through the city packing 90 mph wind gusts.
Part of the roof at the hospital’s plant operations building was torn off. But that was an outbuilding and doesn’t affect patients or staff, said hospital spokeswoman Karen Krieger.
The hospital has emergency generators for power and had supplies of water delivered prior to the storm, Krieger said.
The water problem will also affect more than 30,000 customers of the city’s utility system.
The Cape was forced to shut down the generator for its reverse osmosis plant which supplies water to residents.
“Water pressure is very low or non-existent,” said city spokeswoman Connie Barron.
The plant will be restarted when the storm passes and residents should have water.
There was a report of a tornado touching down at 1941 Southwest 6th Avenue, but no emergency personnel are planning to go out until at least 5:30 or 6 p.m., Barron said.
It was also reported that two palm trees were uprooted and sent flying through the air on the 900 block of SE 27th St., located south of Veterans Parkway.
The lake near Gerhart Plate’s Southwest 10th Ave. home was “as big as an ocean” thanks to Hurricane Charley.
“I’ve never seen that water so big,” said the Cape Coral resident.
The water was creeping over his seawall but had not yet reached his house as the storm continued to slam the city at about 4:30 p.m.
Half the roof had been ripped off his neighbors’ house. Plate thought another neighbor’s screened lanai had been dragged into the lake.
Wind gusts of up to 90 miles per hour ravaged the neighborhood.
“The trees are bare,” Plate said. “We have some trees collapsing into the water.”
On-the-water preparations
On Friday morning, Bobby Russ and his two sons hurriedly drilled plywood over the windows of their Lenox Court house near the Caloosahatchee River.
Once they were finished, they planned to head to higher ground in northern Cape Coral where they hope Hurricane Charley’s storm surge won’t be a problem.
“It’s the smart thing to do,” said Russ, 45, as he took a break from drilling. “I’m pretty much going to get out of its way.”
Cape Coral officials felt the same way, and Friday morning they asked Russ and other residents of low-lying Cape Coral neighborhoods to seek higher — and safer — ground.
Not everyone was taking that advice, though.
Clark Wallo, 82, lowered the metal storm shutters on his Dolphin Drive house and stored documents and other important papers and valuables onto higher places. He was going to hunker down and wait out Charley.
A 15-year resident, Wallo said he’s never had a problem with flooding.
“I’m not too worried, really,” he said.
“But if the water starts coming into the house, we’re leaving.”
Meanwhile, at the Cape Coral Yatch Club, David Mackey completed last-minute checks on their houseboat.
Mackey was going to ride out the storm with his wife and 8-week-old infant aboard their boat — unless conditions worsened.
“We put lines on the boat from here to Kingdom Come,” said Mackey, 36.
If they have to, Mackey said he, his wife and his 8-week-old infant will go and stay with a friend. But he hopes it doesn’t come to that. He wants to stay with his boat so he can let out the lines, if need be.
“It’s a waiting game,” Mackey said. “The boat’s our home. If we lose it, we’re in trouble.”
Right!
Boortz was talking about the "rigid control" authorities like to keep as soon as they have it.
They don't want people to return, they don't want them in the way, they don't want them to try to get back to their homes once they've left.
Let's hope this idiot in Cape Coral got his stupid self and his wife and baby off the boat and into a proper shelter in time.
...video footage starting to come in from the hurricane's "ground zero". The picture on my screen is blurry, but it looks pretty darn bad. The talking heads were ooohing and ahhhing, saying it looks like a bomb went off, and speculating that maybe a tornado came through.