Official: Charley's Death Toll to Climb [Stacks Of Bodies at Mobile Home Park]

Yahoo News ^ | 8/14/04 | ALLEN G. BREED,

[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.

[Vermonter]

OK. Here's my hurricane survival story.

Moved to Florida last fall from Vermont. Bought a home in rural Manatee County east of I75 on ten acres in a nice development with not many trees.

On hearing the initial storm warnings, we picked up all the outdoor furniture, hoses, cans, etc and put them away. Checked with neighbors and looked around the area, absolutely no one has hurricane shutters or was putting up plywood. So, felt comfortable doing the same.

We do have two sets of large sliding doors on the south side of the house, and tile floors. So, we moved the furniture from this part of the house to the bedrooms in case the windows broke, we might still save the furnishings.

Storm was initially predicted to hit land slightly north of us and about 25 miles west. That could have been worst case for us as the winds were stronger and coming at us from the south in that scenario.

Followed the storm's progress all day via local TV/radio and internet. Thing most lacking was a clear track we could use for the path of the storm. Plenty of info on who must evacuate, when and where to. In this county at least, handicapped, who were pre-registered would be picked up from their homes.

Shortly before storm made it's jog to the east, we lost power and started relying on radio only. Six area stations had pooled their personnel and were simulcasting on all six stations. They were taking phone calls from anyone and everyone and answering all kinds of stupid questions. Actual storm info was there, but not in very good detail.

We did finally learn, as the winds and rain started pounding us, that the storm had actually moved east of us and had almost passed us. It was hammering Arcadia at that point. We got winds of maybe 40 mph and a total rainfall for the day of less than 3 inches. Because the storm was east of us, the winds we got were from the north, and the sliders were not in jeopardy.

Power was restored mid morning today and ISP came back on line shortly after. Absolutely no damage here or even debris to pick up, but there will either be storm shutters or precut plywood ready to protect my windows before we have another storm.

We have a generator and a well, so that part is already taken of

Keep our fellow citizens to the east, south and north in mind. They were not as lucky as we were.

[nwctwx]

I posted this late last night, but for those who missed it...

Due to the still unknown circumstances of those areas hardest hit by Charley, it is difficult to fully reflect on this storm that is still ongoing. Early reporting is indicating that some areas in the vicinity of Punta Gorda in southwest Florida may have been completely destroyed by Charley's fierce winds and powerful surge. Total loses are already estimated to be $15-20 billion and will likely go much higher. When all is said and done, this storm may rival or surpass Andrew in property cost and loss of life. There are varied reports coming out of the hardest hit areas about casualties, but there are at least a few indications that there may be bery many.

Radar Image Depicting Wind Velocity before Landfall : Note the 165 KT Max

The white dot on the image above is Punta Gorda. Within the first set of lines, isolated wind speeds were likely sustained near 150mph. Because the eyewall was so small, the area of greatest impact will also be small. That said, towns within that eyewall are likely destroyed. If the fears are realized that many did not heed warnings, big problems were had somewhere along that path. We should expect horrific images from SW Florida come morning.

I'm no 'weather expert' but I felt it was painfully apparent what this storm might end up doing back on Wednesday. All things appeared quite conducive to create a system that was going to explode in intensity after passing Cuba. I felt that it should have been conveyed to the public that the storm was almost certain to hit somewhere along the Florida Gulf Coast due to the abnormal trough for this time of year. The media also should have informed people that the chances of a large storm were great because of the normal August bath-water SST's in that region.

I do not think the general public understands just how difficult it is to predict exactly where the strongest winds will be with a hurricane (especially one like Today's - with small eye walls). Once the evacuation orders were issued, people should have taken the warning very seriously. The fact of storm surge alone should have scared those who were near the water into leaving. I feel like the storm was largely ignored until it bombed out to a strong Category 4 this afternoon. People were laughing at the Category 2 just north of Cuba last night, they were not told that there was a great likelihood the storm would blossom as it did.

I think the NHC did a good job but speculated that the model consistency meant a hit in Tampa. Whenever I heard someone talk about the storm yesterday, they said it was going to Tampa. That was a mistake in my opinion, but the NHC continued to use strong wording (even through this morning) that it was headed for Tampa (this mornings doubly ominous statement from Tampa NWS did not help matters either). I suppose the language chosen was partly in order to get people convinced to leave the Bay area. If this had taken the original forecast track, we might be wondering why we had no news out of TPA yet.

Again, I am no expert, but I was able to deduce the following on Wednesday evening (in concert with the NWS):

---

"Charley is still a big question mark. A Florida hit appears likeliest at this point, but some things today are focusing my attention towards the FL Panhandle/Coastal Alabama area. So far, Charley has stayed further south than any computer models suggested. This will allow the storm to have less interaction with land, and it is quite possible that it will be a very strong storm (verging on Category 3/Major) once it gets into the Gulf of Mexico. The bigger the storm gets, the less it will be pulled along by the jet stream to the north. If it can gain enough steam to become a major hurricane, all bets are off. By late tomorrow evening, questions in regards to a Florida hit will be answered. This East Coast Trough (frontal system - jet stream buckle) is VERY strong for august and is actually much more typical once we get into Autumn in the US. If Charley does not manage to create it's own weather, he will certainly go right up the east coast after the initial hit somewhere in the eastern GOM.

This following image is a historical map of where storms have gone that have been in Charley's neighborhood. If western Florida does get hit, this will be a very unusual August storm system."

[Catholic Iowan]

Does anyone know what the situation on the ground is in Palm Coast? I have a friend from high school that recently moved there. It is on Florida's east coast maybe about 30 miles north of Daytona Beach. Prayers for all who are being affected by Hurricane Charlie.

[jpsb]

Bump, that sounds bad like a tornado.

Yesterday as I watched TV crews report "from the eye" of the huricane it didn't seem anywhere near that bad.

[summer]

Thanks for your posts. I am OK.

I did not get a direct hit by this storm, but, many others I know did. And, their damages were very severe.

I still do not have power and am not at home right now.

FL Gov Jeb Bush is somewhere in the area and I believe there will be National Guard here soon, and a curfew, from 7PM - 7AM. Most street lights are out, and many stores remain closed.

They are saying on the news that North Captiva Island was sliced into two by this storm, and there is a new waterway now between the two NEW islands, that did not exist before.

Our neighbors have been great and everyone is helping each other. The biggest problem remains the loss of electricity.

It's impossible to get through to Florida Power & Light (only a recording), but, you can speak to a live person at the national FEMA hotline -- for anyone who needs that number, it's: 1-800-621-FEMA.

Thanks again for thinking of me; everything will be OK, eventually.

[not_apathetic_anymore]

I wondered the same thing, he was standing by the rail at charlotte harbor, then went to ride out the storm in a newsvan. I last heard him reporting as the eye of the storm was passing over him and the storm was picking up again.

I assume he must have made it or we'd be hearing the newscasters talking about him.

[jpsb]

Yea I was watching him too, and wondering how he could stand up in 120+ winds. He is the reason I thought this storm was not a cat 4. No one can stand up and report from the eye wall of a cat 4 huricane.

[My Favorite Headache]

Thanks for asking...I'm doing good...still haven't heard from friends in Cape Coral and Ft.Myers yet though.

[Dog Gone]

It's great to hear from you! What a mess!

[tutstar]

Oh my gosh! That's a lot for a mobile home!

[Dog Gone]

Sat Aug 14, 2:18 PM ET
Upper Captiva Island is seen after Hurricane Charley cut a new channel through it, as the storm came ashore west of Fort Myers, in Florida, August 14, 2004. Across storm-struck southwest Florida, dazed residents emerged Saturday morning from damaged homes or returned from public shelters to find their lives turned inside out by Hurricane Charley, which struck Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Fort Myers with ferocious 145 mph (233 kph) winds and a flooding 15-foot (4.5-meter) storm surge. Hurricane Charley battered multimillion-dollar houses on exclusive islands off southwest Florida, prompting an initial damage estimate of $3 billion in one county alone, an official said Saturday.

[tutstar]

Yes it would be but there are some people who own their mh and rent the lot.

[FITZ]

Still it seems renting a lot inland would be cheaper than renting coastal land.

If I get a mobile home, I would go back to the concept that mobile homes originally had --- and that is be mobile --- I envy those with RV's who just pack up and move when they don't like the weather they have or what is forecast. You could be on the coast of Florida one day --- see the hurricane forecasts --- and be in Tucson or somewhere else a day later.

[netpro]

Believe it. It's worse than that. We don't need the phone lines tied up right now with calls from the north. This is worse than Andrew.

[Dog Gone]

Sat Aug 14, 2:36 PM ET
Four mobile homes are seen in Port Charlotte, Florida after being destroyed by Hurricane Charley, August 14, 2004. Rescuers poured into southwest Florida on Saturday to search for victims and help shocked survivors of Hurricane Charley, a devastating storm that flattened homes and stores and left up to 1 million without power. (Pierre Ducharme/Reuters

[jpsb]

great pics. Bump.

[Dog Gone]

Sat Aug 14, 2:13 PM ET
Wrecked planes are seen alongside damaged hangars at Charlotte County Airport in Punta Gorda, in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley, August 14, 2004. Across storm-struck southwest Florida, dazed residents emerged Saturday morning from damaged homes or returned from public shelters to find their lives turned inside out by Hurricane Charley, which struck Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Fort Myers with ferocious 145 mph (233 kph) winds and a flooding 15-foot (4.5-meter) storm surge. Hurricane Charley battered multimillion-dollar houses on exclusive islands off southwest Florida, prompting an initial damage estimate of $3 billion in one county alone, an official said Saturday. REUTERS/Pierre Ducharme

[Howlin]

Is that your report?

[Dog Gone]

Sat Aug 14, 1:52 PM ET
A parked car is surrounded by the ruins of a house north of Port Charlotte, Fla., early Saturday, Aug. 14, 2004, after Hurricane Charley moved through the area Friday. (AP Photo/J.Pat Carter)

[Dog Gone]

Sat Aug 14, 1:46 PM ET
Mobile homes along a canal in Punta Gorda are seen after being devastated by Hurricane Charley, August 14, 2004. Across storm-struck southwest Florida, dazed residents emerged Saturday morning from damaged homes or returned from public shelters to find their lives turned inside out by Hurricane Charley, which struck Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Fort Myers with ferocious 145 mph (233 kph) winds and a flooding 15-foot (4.5-meter) storm surge. Hurricane Charley battered multimillion-dollar houses on exclusive islands off southwest Florida, prompting an initial damage estimate of $3 billion in one county alone, an official said Saturday. REUTERS/Pierre Ducharme