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.
Speaking from experience of living in Homestead Fl and having lived at the Virginia/NC border for years - one big reason why people do not leave, including me a few times (no, I'm not in a mobile home) is that you bug out time after time after time, and the hurricane doesn't even get close.
When Floyd was threatening my area a few years back, the Keys evacuated as well as mandatory evacuations for trailors/mobile homes in Homestead. People left, Floyd didn't even get close to us. The next time there was an evacuation for trailors, not as many people left. You become complacent, thinking it's not going to hit you. Even living in an area that has been destroyed by a storm.
Maybe we don't shoot folks just yet. Watched an interview with a college age kid who wanted to surf the hurricane waves. Chickened out on the surfing, but had a house a couple of blocks off the beach that he waited it out on.
Seems like several dozen folks stayed on the island during the storm.
FoxNews just confirmed 10 dead in Charlotte County area.
Death toll currently for the state of Florida: 15.
I wish Freeper summer would check back in. I'm not positive which community she lives in, but she was posting up until about noon yesterday, and nothing since. I know she was in the general path of the storm along the coast. Hopefully, it's just a matter of a loss of power, but it does have me concerned.
No one will really like this, but best we get it said.
Charlotte and Lee counties were strong Bush counties in 2000. These people need NOT to leave the state. They need to find a place to recover locally, and get reregistered in their new temporary homes. We'll need their votes in November.
A hurricane must not be allowed to deliver Florida to a pro abortion candidate.
Sigh.
There was a MANDATORY evacuation order for mobile homes and RV's in Charlotte County(including Punta Gorda) for more than 24 hours before the storm struck. Hurricane WARNINGS were in place even before that. Every person living in a hurricane prone area has repeatedly heard and been warned about how dangerous and unpredictable hurricanes are. Everyone living in a mobile home has repeatedly heard that they are vulnerable to extremely high winds. The gov't can only do so much, at some point only the individual can be held responsible for his choices.(Shouldn't that go without saying on a conservative site?)
There will be a massive attempt by the media to shift all blame to the Bush's, the local gov'ts, and the weather agencies rather than those who chose to ignore the many warnings put out. Please don't give any kind of legitimacy to these politically-driven slander attempts.
I’ve included a pic for the shooters’ group that I thought might enjoy. This was taken after Charley passed in Pt. Charlotte. Funny how the liberal newspapers immediately shut up about us “gun toting whackos” when reality bitch-slaps them across the face like this storm did. Note also the lettering on the wall in the background.
A new freeper by the name of 'Hurricaine' posted a thread with this information back around midnight, 'Substantial loss of life with Hurricane Charley'. The thread was quickly pulled and the poster banned.
Perhaps he was a retread troll, or perhaps he should be reinstated in good standing?
I'm still amazed that Freepers would think the government is so stupid not to tell people to leave there is a storm on the way. Hurricanes are not like tornados of earthquakes where there is little notice. People are told days in advance to start packing up.
some people just like the fit of their tin foil hats!
Captiva island appears to be a small barrer island less then 1/2 mile wide and about 4 or 5 miles long. Why would someone build a house on a little barrer island knowing that huricanes happen all the time?
Wrong. When these people went to bed they were under a MANDATORY evacuation order for all RV and trailer parks in Charlotte County(which includes Punta Gorda.), which had been in effect since 3pm.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1191393/posts?page=324#324
Prayers to all in FL.
It is probably just as you said, a power loss, lots of people are without power right now and can't send messages out.
orlando is one area that has massive power outages but hopefully will get back up soon.
Prayers for everyone who is in the path of the storm and for those waiting to hear from them.
*Captiva island appears to be a small barrer island less then 1/2 mile wide and about 4 or 5 miles long. Why would someone build a house on a little barrer island knowing that huricanes happen all the time?*
How 'bout because it's beautiful living on an island. We pay outrageous amounts of money for smaller homes (I went from 4000+ square feet in NC to less than 2000 in the Fl keys) and really outrageous windstorm insurance premiums (ours is well over $6k per year, in addition to our regular homeowners policy) but that is the price you pay to live in paradise.
Why do people live in California, where an earthquake can destroy their homes? Or in Kansas, where a tornado can destroy theirs?
Living in a hurricane zone requires planning and can be expensive, but when the storms aren't here it's quite nice.
I am frankly amazed that this is even being discussed.
What part of An Act of God do these people not understand?????
With a shotgun sitting on a chair beside him, Terry Frye sits in front of his home, which was devastated by Hurricane Charley in Port Charlotte, Fla. early Aug. 14, 2004. Rescuers raced into southwest Florida Saturday to search for victims and help survivors of Hurricane Charley, a devastating storm that leveled buildings and left up to one million without power. Photo by Marc Serota/Reuters
Wayne Sallade, Charlotte County's director of emergency management, said there were 10 confirmed deaths in the county, but an exact total was not available. "Not hundreds. I would hope that it would be limited to dozens, if that," Sallade said.
Give the lady a
Someday, I predict that someone will file suit claiming that the use of that disclaimer is unconstitutional.
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