Posted on 08/14/2004 1:42:49 AM PDT by kattracks
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - The death toll from Hurricane Charley rose early Saturday, when a county official said there had a been "a number of fatalities" at a mobile home park and deputies were standing guard over stacks of bodies because the area was inaccessible to ambulances.Wayne Sallade, Charlotte County's director of emergency management, said early Saturday that there were "a number of fatalities" at the mobile home park, and that there were confirmed deaths in at least three other areas in the county.
The eye of the worst hurricane to hit Florida in a dozen years passed directly over Punta Gorda, a town of 15,000 which took a devastating hit Friday.
Hundreds of people were missing and more were left homeless, said Sallade, who compared the devastation to 1992's Hurricane Andrew, blamed for 43 deaths, most in South Florida.
"It's Andrew all over again," he said. "We believe there's significant loss of life."
Sallade did not have an estimate on a specific number of fatalities. He said it may take days to get a final toll.
Extensive damage was also reported on exclusive Captiva Island, a narrow strip of sand west of Fort Myers.
President Bush (news - web sites) declared a major disaster area in Florida, making federal money available to Charlotte, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota counties. One million customers were reported without power statewide, including all of Hardee County and Punta Gorda.
The Category 4 storm was stronger than expected when the eye reached the mainland at Charlotte Harbor, pummeling the coast with winds reaching 145 mph and a surge of sea water of 13 to 15 feet.
Charley was forecast to spread sustained winds of about 40 mph to 60 mph across inland portions of eastern North Carolina and to dump 3 to 6 inches of rain beginning Saturday morning, forecasters said. Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency.
In South Carolina, roads clogged Friday night as tourists and residents of the state's Grand Strand — beaches and high-dollar homes and hotels — heeded a mandatory evacuation order. Gov. Mark Sanford had urged voluntary evacuation earlier Friday.
At Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda, 40 people sought treatment for storm injuries. The hospital was so badly damaged that patients were transferred to other hospitals.
"We can't keep patients here," CEO Josh Putter said. "Every roof is damaged, lots of water damage, half our windows are blown out."
Among those seeking treatment was Marty Rietveld, showered with broken glass when the sliding glass door at his home was smashed by a neighbor's roof that blew off. Rietveld broke his leg, and his future son-in-law suffered a punctured leg artery.
"We are moving," said Rietveld's daughter, Stephanie Rioux. "We are going out of state."
At least 20 patients with storm injuries were reported at a hospital in Fort Myers.
A crash on Interstate 75 in Sarasota County killed one person, and a wind gust caused a truck to collide with a car in Orange County, killing a young girl. A man who stepped outside his house to smoke a cigarette died when a banyan tree fell on him in Fort Myers, authorities said.
At the Charlotte County Airport, wind tore apart small planes, and one flew down the runway as if it were taking off. The storm spun a parked pickup truck 180 degrees, blew the windows out of a sheriff's deputy's car and ripped the roof off an 80-foot-by 100-foot building.
Martin said he saw homes ripped apart at two trailer parks.
"There were four or five overturned semi trucks — 18-wheelers — on the side of the road," he said.
In Desoto County outside Arcadia, several dead cows, wrapped in barbed wire, littered the roadside.
The hurricane rapidly gained strength in the Gulf of Mexico after crossing Cuba and swinging around the Florida Keys as a more moderate Category 2 storm Friday morning. An estimated 1.4 million people evacuated in anticipation of the strongest hurricane to strike Florida since Andrew in 1992.
Charley reached landfall at 3:45 p.m. EDT, when the eye passed over barrier islands off Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, some 110 miles southeast of the Tampa Bay area.
Charley hit the mainland 30 minutes later, with storm surge flooding of 10 to 15 feet, the hurricane center said. Nearly 1 million people live within 30 miles of the landfall.
The state put 5,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen on alert to help deal with the storm, but only 1,300 had been deployed by Friday night, a state emergency management spokeswoman said.
At a nursing center in Port Charlotte, Charley broke windows and ripped off portions of the roof, but none of the more than 100 residents or staff was injured, administrator Joyce Cuffe said.
"The doors were being sucked open," Cuffe said. "A lot of us were holding the doors, trying to keep them shut, using ropes, anything we could to hold the doors shut. There was such a vacuum, our ears and head were hurting."
At 2 a.m. EDT, the center of the storm was in the Atlantic Ocean, about 190 miles south-southwest of Charleston, S.C., and moving north-northeast at 25 mph. Forecasters expected Charley to increase in speed. Maximum sustained winds were near 85 mph with higher gusts.
The center was expected to approach the South Carolina coast Saturday morning. A hurricane warning remained in effect from Cocoa Beach, northward to Oregon Inlet, N.C., and a tropical storm warning was in effect on the North Carolina and Virginia Coasts north of Oregon Inlet to Chincoteague, including the lower Chesapeake Bay south of Smith Point.
Spared the worst of the storm was the Tampa Bay area, where about a million people had been told to leave their homes. Some drove east, only to find themselves in the path of the Charley.
"I feel like the biggest fool," said Robert Angel of Tarpon Springs, who sought safety in a motel. "I spent hundreds of dollars to be in the center of a hurricane. Our home is safe, but now I'm in danger."
The fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Danielle, formed Friday but posed no immediate concern to land. The fifth may form as early as Saturday and threaten islands in the southeastern Caribbean Sea.
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Associated Press writers Mark Long in Fort Myers, Ken Thomas in Key West, Mitch Stacy and Brendan Farrington in Tampa, Vickie Chachere in Sarasota, Mike Branom and Mike Schneider in Orlando and Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C., contributed to this report.
We went through Homestead a few months after Andrew. I still remember the mountains of debris, seeing I beams twisted like licorce sticks....how anyone managed to survive Andrew was a miracle.
Rescuers Rush to Help Charley Victims in FloridaBy Michael Peltier PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (Reuters) - Rescuers raced into southwest Florida on Saturday to search for victims and help survivors of Hurricane Charley, a devastating storm that leveled buildings and left up to 1 million without power.
As a weakened but still powerful Charley headed toward the South Carolina coast, search teams with heavy equipment set out for Fort Myers, Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, the Gulf Coast towns hit hardest when the storm made an unexpected turn south and struck with 145 mph winds on Friday.
"This type of hurricane only happens once every hundred years, they say," said Harry Thomas, looking over his destroyed Pelican Cove bayside motel in Port Charlotte. "I could have lived and died twice."
Florida's emergency management agency said at least three people were killed as the storm raged from the southwest coast across Orlando to the northeast shore, and there were unconfirmed reports of other deaths near Punta Gorda.
Emergency managers there ordered 60 body bags, two refrigerated trucks and had sheriff's deputies standing guard over bodies, CNN reported.
"We know that there has been quite a bit of damage to Punta Gorda. That appears to be the main area right now," said Erin Geraghty, a spokeswoman for the state's emergency management office. "We have search and rescue teams going into the area with large vehicles and trained searchers.
Charley was blamed for four deaths in Cuba and one in Jamaica after it formed in the Caribbean on Tuesday.
Early Saturday, ambulances streamed out of southwest Florida toward Tampa, taking patients to safety from damaged hospitals as National Guard troops, power company workers and search teams streamed in. In Port Charlotte, a man sat in front of his home with a shotgun, having scrawled the words "looters will be killed" on the wall.
A powerful Category 4 storm when it hit shore, Charley flattened mobile homes, tore roofs off buildings, overturned boats and cars, ripped up trees and signs and shredded power lines.
The storm plowed across central Florida, weakening as it dumped heavy rains on Orlando, home to Disney World, leaving a wide trail of destruction. Mobile homes were reduced to rubble and tractor-trailers were flipped over like toys.
"I guess it could have been worse. I'm just trying to figure out how," said Chris DiMarco of Port Charlotte, who lost part of his roof and pool enclosure.
On exclusive Captiva Island, offshore from Punta Gorda, 160 condominiums were totally destroyed and a similar number seriously damaged, the National Weather Service (news - web sites) said.
Florida Power & Light said 429,000 customers were left without electricity. Progress Energy Florida said 477,000 people were sitting in the dark.
State officials said they would be conducting damage estimates on Saturday.
But a catastrophic risk management group, Risk Management Solutions, estimated Charley could have inflicted up to $5 billion of insured damage. The group initially predicted up to $15 billion in insured losses but lowered the estimate after discovering the area of strongest winds was relatively small.
President Bush (news - web sites) declared Florida a disaster area to speed emergency assistance.
Forecasters had expected Charley to hit the densely populated Tampa area north of Port Charlotte and nearly 2 million people were told to evacuate.
But the storm suddenly gathered intensity as it headed for land and made a last-minute turn that brought it ashore farther south, catching off guard many who had ignored evacuation orders because they thought they were safe.
By 8 a.m., Charley was about 35 miles south-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, near latitude 32.3 north and longitude 79.7 west, and its winds had reduced to 85 mph. It was moving north-northeast at 28 mph with winds of up to 85 mph.
As a Category 4 storm -- the second strongest on a scale used to rate hurricanes -- Charley rated as one of the most dangerous storms to hit Florida.
Hurricane Andrew was believed to be a Category 4 storm when it hit Miami in August 1992, causing $25 billion in damage. After ten years of study, experts upgraded it to a Category 5.
Couldn't or wouldn't, how well I know. Moved my mother, less than 4 months ago, from Ft. Myers to UT to live with my sister. I'm very grateful now that I was able to withstand the reluctance at the time and accomplish the mission. Now I need to call my cousin who owns a beach house at Bonita Beach, to see if she still owns a beach house.
Are you likely to get a visit from Charley?
Bad link. Here is the correct link to the live news feed from Charlotte County. http://waterbc.wm.llnwd.net/waterbc_netvideo
And you're an expert in dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes I suppose.
Looks like we'll get something; can't tell how bad until I find out where it's coming ashore.
But my niece and nephew are in Wilmington.
Lee County official: SW Florida International Airport to reopen at 9:00 am.
Beaches closed...Sanibel, Captiva and Pine Islands are closed.
I have never seen anything like this:
I heard that most of those communities didn’t call for a mandatory evacuation of trailers, unlike where I live in the Keys. Then somewhere around noon Charlie increased speed to a Cat 3. Nothing on this page or the weather underground site mentioned that for hours. It was freaking nuts.
Less than a half hour after noon (much less) various media began reporting Charly as a Cat 4 and veering east. By 2:30 it was probably too late to leave many of those communities. Not a lot of roads running east. Those that exist cross rivers and are potential congestion points. Wind and rain were beginning Those people who chose to risk a Cat 1 or 2 just had a couple of hours to get the word and make a decision. This is a retirement community. Many made the wrong decision.
My wife and I looked all around the Fort Myers and Punta Gorda area before buying our house here in Key Largo I was driving around at 4PM yesterday thinking about the above.. Knowing that many there were not prepared for that and were at that moment fighting for their lives.
It's being reported that a sheriff on site at a trailer park ordered 60 body bags.
You guys have it much worse than we do, with only 1 way out of the Keys until you get to my area. I don't blame you one bit for deciding to pack up and get out with an infant. I'd do the exact same thing. Thankfully, we dodged a bullet once again with Charley. Now lets see what TD 5 does over the next few days. This is going to be a long hurricane season.
Our house was built after Andrew and has all the upgraded hurricane standard upgrades. We've said I will pack up the animals and leave for anything over a 4. Unfortunately my husband will not be able to evacuate with me because he's considered essential personel at his job (Turkey Point Nuclear).
As you've been shown repeatedly, if they said that, they were wrong.
I only mentioned that the media made it seem this storm would take a much different path, and that may be why some people chose to stay.
Could you please quit trying to justify yourself, and find (1)somewhere else to whine, and (2) someone else to whine to?
Lee County official: Lee County residents who have evacuated are asked not to return today.
"Punta Gorda hit badly. LE is guarding stacks of bodies in a mobile home park there according to FoxNews. 4 counties declared major disaster areas. "
Sorry but I think modular or mobile homes in hurricane prone areas should have a mandatory mobile home community storm bunker equipped with a generator for all of the mobile park residents to stay safe in. It's the most sensible solution so far. There is no way these people could have remained out of harms way inside their mobile homes. The news showed another senior citizen retirement mobile home park that is destroyed. I find it hard to believe home insurers there carry these mobile homes. It isn't practical or safe. Many many Oklahoma residents have tornado bunkers.
Florida needs to start implementing community storm "bunkers" especially for all of the mobile home parks. What is so hard about this concept when tornado ridden Oklahoma inhabitants have them.
Because it was unconfirmed at that time.
I worked a summer at the Hospital there in Punta Gorda, I think it was Charlotte Country Hospital (the one on US 17, as I recall).
I can't believe they stayed. Charley was supposed to hit north of there and by the time it was known where the storm was coming on land it was too late to leave.
I am just north of Charlotte, NC. We know what Hugo did to us. We are 200 miles from the coast! Parts of the SC coast were totally destroyed. Hugo cut a path of devastation through both states.
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