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.
___
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.
Any idea why zoning in those areas allows for mobile homes? It doesn't seem logical to have them in areas that get hit by hurricanes.
He has done that - and I just saw his statement on FNC. But he needs to get down there with his brother and go to the damage site, pass out water bottles, whatever. Yes, I know its crass - but that's politics, and he has to show he's connected to this disaster.
It seems that would have only made sense --- even if you had to go inland and rent a motel for the night --- or go inland and stay in your car.
400 yards? that is huge, we have some similar breaks happen on the long island barrier island, but nothing that big.
We keep our boat "Hot Line" over at Garden Cove, MM106 ocean side.
Same, our place in Key Largo is concrete block with a concrete roof. We stay at a Cat 2, shelter at Mariners Hospital if higher.
Wow! Thanks for those graphics.
**But he needs to get down there with his brother and go to the damage site, pass out water bottles, whatever**
Good idea, tie up resources with the secret service securing the area for a presidential visit. NOT! The best thing W can do is what he did, releasing federal funds and staying out of the way so the rescue workers and others can do their jobs. W can visit the area when they have things under control. If he went now, the media would have lots of stories on how he hampered rescue efforts by being in the way.
I live in Florida and was originally expected to get the winds and rain from this storm before it took the turn.
This WAS exactly as they predicted. The officials said over and over that this was a DEADLY storm, the worst since Donna, and had to be taken seriously.
If this storm hit Tampa it would have been devistating, more so than it was.
I am praying for those that are directly affected, but thank God for sparing the Tampa area.
I will sound like a real diva, but honestly, I'd rather leave and go somewhere with a/c until things get back under control. The heat of the past few days has been unbelievable, and to endure it without a/c sounds like zero fun to me.
elected officials, even presidents, routinely visit (or "tour") these types of disaster areas. Bush went to the WTC a few days after 9-11, it can't be harder to secure a location for a visit in florida then it was in lower manhattan after a terrorist attack.
That seems how they do it in some of those poorer islands -- a guy I know who grew up in Barbados said they would do that -- their houses were made of grass and they would lay on the floor until the storm passed --- sometimes their houses were gone but it seems a grass house wouldn't be too costly to replace. Mobile homes might be more modern but when a strong storm comes, the only thing you should do is get someplace else.
I agree, but he doesn't need to go there TODAY, which was how I interpreted the other poster's message.
Personally, I think all of this wailing about the president visiting any disaster site is just indicitave of the nanny state. We all know Clinton loved any disaster site or funeral for that matter, but honestly, what can the president see by going there and tying everything up that he can't see by video? People need to get a grip about the president being everywhere to "feel our pain." Better he take action by signing a disaster declaration and making a phone call than getting in the way.
I do not mean any disrespect by posting here but lets be clear if this is a private thread.
Mobile homes are a death trap in a hurricane or tornado. They aren't called mobile for nothing......
I've never understood why people want elected officials, especially well known elected officials to tour an area after a natural disaster.
What the area needs is rescue efforts, people moving in to bring shelter, food, water and medical assistance. Construction equipment to start coming in to remove debris, FPL to move their trucks and men in to start picking up downed power lines and restore power to areas that are safe to to have it.
The last thing the people in the area need is to be shut off while someone "tours" the area. Gov. Bush will be going down to the area. There is no reason for President Bush to come down here now.
Although I believe there is a lot of similarity between the appearance of a war zone and a zone through which a Cat 4 or 5 has passed through.
Sanibel mayor just requested National Guard help.
Aftermath photos: at this link: http://www.news-press.com/news/weather/hurricane/index.html
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