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.
Captiva Island has not taken a hit like this in decades. These people paid to live a lifetime in paradise with the understanding that there might be a few days of hell and a lot of cleanup at some point. They got 30-40 years of the best life can offer.
Now they pick up, clean up and settle back in paradise again.
These little barrier islands really should not be built up. But if they are then tax money should not be used to rebuild. 6k for windstorm is a great deal. Rebuild will cost tax payer about 250,000k / house.
Happily it looks like the folks living there were smart enough to leave, looking at the map I'd say the island is maybe 5 or 6 feet above sea level.
It jumped two categories in the last half hour prior to landfall and then changed direction. I doubt they had enough time at that point to go anywhere. Living in mobile homes they should have evacuated Thursday when the evac orders went out.
Because it's absolutely gorgeous there, the weather is nice most of the time, and they haven't had a major hurricane in over 40 years.
Same as you -- for the weather and ambience. We have weather in the 70s year round here by the Pacific in So Cal. Some 80s in the summer, and some 60s in the winter. In between the earthquakes and fires, it's great. (Actually, we do not live in a fire zone personally, though we do live in a huge terrorist target area...)
G-d bless everyone worried, injured, or without property from this force majeure.
At tax payer expense. You want to live on a little barrier island? Or on a fault line? Cool, but do it at your own expense, not with tax dollars.
Try to get private insurance, no insurance company will touch you, why? Because, it is crazy to insure a home build on a tiny island in a huricane prone area.
Texas finally put an end to the worst offenders and would bought out hundreds of homes. No more tax payers insurance, sell out or take your chances, most/all sold.
Charlie was nasty, but I have seen far bigger storms that would cut the islands into little pieces, we had a little island about the same size in Galveston Bay, Allica cut it into 3 pieces and slowly the island washed away.
A storm like Allen or Carla would completely wipe out these little islands, nothing left, not even the islands.
Captiva Island, along with the entire area down there can be describded as nothing less than paradise. Exquisite beaches, white sands, fantastic weather, gorgeous views and clean beyond belief. It's an area where people not only take pride in how the area looks, they make sure the natural areas are not destroyed anymore by man than necessary.
The same goes from most of the Florida Keys. All it takes is one visit to the area to see why people are willing to chance an act of God taking out their home every 30-40 years to live in paradise.
If I had the money, I'd live there (or the Keys) in a heartbeat.
Don't the Bushes have a vacation place on one of the little islands in Lee County?
Yes but I'm not sure exactly which barrier island it's on. So far I've heard nothing out of Jeb Bush about his home etc.
That is very similar to the scene from the coastal mountains above Port Hueneme State beach in CA. On and pleasant day you can see two islands from there:)
Has Kerry said it is all Bush's fault yet?
My problem is how at times people can be so foolish, building on a little barrier island, staying in a mobil home with a huricane comming, not seeking higher gound from a low lying coastal plain. I just don't get it. My house is 12 feet above sea level, I'll stay for a cat 1 or cat 2, cat 3 I'll think about cat 4 and I am outta here.
I suspect, before the day is out, Kerry or one of his croonies will make some comment that Bush hasn't done enough to help the people of Florida.
Let the games begin.
The Fla keyes are bigger higher then these little barrier islands are they? Maybe I am wrong, I am thinking the fla barrier islands are just like the little Texas barrier islands which get wiped out and cut to pieces over time.
are they=aren't they
. Fri., Aug. 13: Candace Gott reacts to loss of her mobile home from Hurricane Charley in North Fort Myers, Fla. "We lost everything" she said.
The storm was well within the predicted path, even if it was at the edge of the prediction. The predicted path is always a wedge, not a line.
I'm a bit more leery of them since seeing the damage from Hugo. The bad thing about that one was, most of the damage seemed to have been from tornados, not the hurricane itself.
50 miles isn't "much further north."
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