Greg Kelly on Fox News reporting from Punta Gorda confirmed the "stacks of bodies" statement. Does anyone know, were the residents of Punta Gorda told to evacuate?
Apparently, the hurricane was expected to hit land much further north.
http://www.charlottecountyfl.com/Emergency/bulletins.asp
Date: Thursday, August 12, 2004 Time: 4:19:31 PM
Mandatory Evacuation of Barrier Islands
CHARLOTTE COUNTY SCHOOLS TO CLOSE FRIDAY. MANDATORY EVACUATION OF BARRIER ISLANDS, RV PARKS, AND MOBILE HOME COMMUNITIES IN CHARLOTTE COUNTY ORDERED AT 3 P.M. TODAY.Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center have moved the landfall of Hurricane Charley slightly north of Tampa, targeting the Tarpon Springs area around 6 pm Friday. We have ordered a mandatory evacuation of all barrier islands, RV parks and those residents living in mobile homes effective at 3 pm today.
Date: Thursday, August 12, 2004 Time: 8:12:01 PM
Low Lying Areas Strongly Urged to Evacuate
Residents in the following areas are strongly urged to consider evacuating their homes by daylight Friday in advance of Hurricane Charley. The strengthening storm is now forecast to produce a storm surge of up to 10 feet above normal tide levels. Those areas of Charlotte County below 8 foot elevation and subject to the worst flooding threat include: EAST PUNTA GORDA AND SOLONA DOWNTOWN PUNTA GORDA PUNTA GORDA’S HISTORIC DISTRICT RIVERSIDE DRIVE, PUNTA GORDA THE EDGEWATER CORRIDOR, PORT CHARLOTTE BAYSHORE ROAD, MELBOURNE STREET & HARBORVIEW ROAD, CHARLOTTE HARBOR BURNT STORE ROAD, PUNTA GORDA PIRATE HARBOR, PUNTA GORDA EL JOBEAN AND THE CAPE HAZE AREA IN WESTERN CHARLOTTE COUNTY Evacuation is MANDATORY for Charlotte County’s barrier islands and for anyone in an RV or mobile home.
Yes, they were. At least 24 hrs before the storm hit. They may still have the articles at the local newspaper site (www.news-press.com) quoting people from various places around that area who said they weren't evacuating.
Dammit. Was it in the triler park that the greatest ddamage and deaths occured? I suspect so.
Punta Gorda is to the south of where the storm was supposed to hit. They had no idea that it was coming in there.
My daughter was chatting online with a friend in Punta Gorda til midnight when the friend's power went out. Then today we see it on the news....
I don't remember. We had the news on nonstop cause we're in Jax in NE FL. I know they told Pinellas county and N of there in areas which would receive surge but I don't know about Punta. The storm track changed by an hour, iow, we were supposed to have the eye pass over us 'but' when it changed track, it passed to the south of us by an hour and went over St. Augustine & Daytona Beach before going back to sea. That may not seem like a very big difference but for us we had low level winds and rain compared to the 75-90 mph winds plus possible tornadoes they had been telling us to prepare for.