Do I see Conspiracy Guy in the background there somewhere? ;)
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.
Lord have mercy.
Do I see Conspiracy Guy in the background there somewhere? ;)
Look at this picture!
why not fly the planes out of harms way? Why leave them at the airport? I used to keep my boat at a very good Marina, since it was only 24' and I have a trailer, I was told that in the event of a huricane I was suppost to get it to a safe place. Not to leave in at the Marina, seemed reasonable to me. I am surprised an air port doesn't have a similar policy.
I'm sure now they wish they had. Looks like some were tied down with 90 mph rope or in hangers.
Oh, my God. So many elderly live down there in trailer parks, duplexes, apartments. Where can they all go? Community centers? Schools? Tragic, dreadful. People did leave, but some probably were afraid of looters and stayed. Prayers for everyone.
I wondered how many electrical workers and construction crews from up north would go down to help out. I live in MA, and many went to Canada to help with that freakish ice storm they had a year or so ago. They're probably already on the way to Fla.
They had probably taken refuge in the mobile home park's clubhouse once they realized it was going to hit and it was too late for them to get out.
Well, let's hope Floridians don't blame Bush for this storm. And I hope they heard the news about Kerry's statement a few years back that if we were hit by a nuclear bomb, he wouldn't respond. I hope the entire country is aware of Kerry's fatuous statement.
Those pictures are awful --- I hope the people in those places were gone when that hit.
I think I heard on the news they were...my family and I drove into Jax fla yesterday from Myrtle beach..cut our vacation short. On 95, there were alot of diff utility trucks and such driving south.
I remember my folks had friends that lived in a big old house down river aways from Williamsport - RIGHT down on the river. When it finally crested, it was about knee high on the second floor.
Also knew numerous people that were washed out out on the Loyalsock and the Lycoming Creeks.
I remember my folks had friends that lived in a big old house down river aways from Williamsport - RIGHT down on the river. When it finally crested, it was about knee high on the second floor.
Also knew numerous people that were washed out out on the Loyalsock and the Lycoming Creeks.
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A pilot walks away Saturday morning Aug. 14, 2004, after salvaging items from the twisted wreckage of several airplanes at the Port Charlotte Airport that were tossed around by Hurricane Charley. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) |
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Sadly, many stayed in their homes. The news services said that if you haven't evacuated by now then "hunker down you've made your decision". Should have been get out and run for your life. So far 1 refrigerated truck has arrived with 60 body bags. This isn't going to be enough. Everyone needs to contact the Salvation Army or Red Cross to see what you can do.
town of 15,000 with hundred missing?
I am trying to translate that into my town of 13,000 and imagining even 100 people missing......and the horror that would cause such a thing is hard to contemplate.
Somehow, if I lived anywhere in the vicinity of central and south florida, I'd find a way to go visit someone or stay at a hotel for a day or so up in Georgia until it was safe to come home...Not to be cynical, but perhaps these are some of the same folks who couldn't punch a ballot in 2000? I admit I grew VERY cynical of Floridians and their brain power during the election, but do care for those who couldn't physically make it out...
All right, you insensitive ghoul! The morons who couldn't punch the voting cards correctly in 2000 were elderly Democrats who live on the southest coast of Florida. The DEAD PEOPLE over here in SW Florida are my friends and neighbors! They were old and scared and possibly felt they had nowhere to go. You can't ask them why because they're DEAD. Congratulations! You're the first Freeper I've ever told to go to hell. Have a nice trip, dirtbag!
I'm glad you posted this - what I wanted to say to her was much worse and would have gotten me banned.
Yeah, that would be due to global warming. ;^)
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