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.
Prayers for those in Florida.
I've seen the manager of the park interviewed. It was mostly elederly residents, with some in their 90's. They weren't snowbirds. This was the main residence for most of them. Why no-one thought to get them out of the way is beyond me, though there are so many elderly in FL that there may have just been no way to do if if the residents couldn't/wouldn't do it themselves.
I never said anybody deserves such devastation.
It's just that this one didn't look like it was going to be a false alarm early on. The weather maps from Thursday looked ominous enough for me.
Who knows what that storm is going to do. It's picking up strength at sea last I heard.
It could hopefully go off into the Atlantic. If things go badly it may go around Hatteras and then zig to the NW right up the Chesapeake as Agnes did in '72 [it eventually went into PA, then zagged again NE before dissipating in New York]. A lot of people would be affected. I remember that [as a TD] Agnes blew out part of the US 1 bridge between Fairfax and Prince William counties here in Northern VA.
ps. My father is in the tidewater section of VA right now -- Northern Neck of the Rappahannock. I'm worried about him.
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?
Ah, thanks. That explains it. ...very different demographics from the place and time where some of my growing years were spent (mostly young parents with kids in that city back then, and many evacuated days ahead).
Apparently, the hurricane was expected to hit land much further north.
It was Cat2 before & after passing over Cuba, and was fully expected to be Cat3 before landfall in Florida.
It did go to Cat4 amazingly quickly, but I fully expected damage in the area that now has damage - perhaps not such significant damage, but it was obvious that the area was in danger of a significant hit.
Add the rains from hurricanes, the storm surge that was expected, and the fact that much of that area was somewhat flooded already, and there was a large obvious potential for damage.
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.
john zarella reports the sheriff at the trailer park has ordered 60 body baghs sent in.
Hurricane Charley Devastates Western Florida
By Marc Serota
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (Reuters) - Hurricane Charley leveled houses and snapped trees in half as it raged into the western Florida coast, leaving 1 million people without power and an expected billion-dollar price tag before moving into the Atlantic Saturday.
A hurricane warning extended from Georgia to the North Carolina-Virginia state line as Charley churned through the ocean, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) said. It was expected to reach the South Carolina coast later in the day.
Packing winds of 145 mph (233 kph), Charlie was a powerful Category 4 storm when came ashore Friday at Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, catching many residents unprepared because of expectations the brunt of the hurricane would hit the coast much farther north.
"I never seen anything like this before," said Victor Rivera as he stood on top of a pile of rubble that used to be the car parts shop where he worked in Port Charlotte.
The storm plowed across central Florida, weakening as it dumped heavy rains on Orlando, home to Disney World, and aimed for the Atlantic. Charley was expected to regain some strength over the water before crossing back onto land in the Carolinas and proceeding through to the north as a tropical storm.
In its wake, overturned boats sat in front of shredded storefronts, power lines dangled in standing water, street signs and billboards were ripped away and palm tree trunks, snapped in half like matchsticks, were wrapped with twisted metal.
Few windows had been boarded up, and most were blown out. Mobile home parks were devastated and 18-wheel tractor-trailers flipped over like toys.
On exclusive Captiva Island, offshore from Punta Gorda, 160 condominiums were totally destroyed and a similar number seriously damaged, the National Weather Service (news - web sites) said.
The storm ripped the roof off an emergency shelter in DeSoto County, exposing the thousand people who had sought refuge within to pounding rain and ferocious winds, the service said.
ASSESSING THE DAMAGE
Florida Power & Light said 429,000 customers were left without electricity. Progress Energy Florida said 477,000 people were sitting in the dark.
"This storm has caused a tremendous amount of destruction," said a Progress company spokesman.
The state emergency management agency said it was too early to put a figure on the damages, or to estimate casualties.
But a catastrophic risk management group, Risk Management Solutions, estimated Charley could have inflicted up to $15 billion of insured damage.
President Bush (news - web sites) declared Florida a disaster area to speed emergency assistance.
Forecasters had expected Charley to hit the densely populated Tampa area north of Port Charlotte and nearly 2 million people were ordered to evacuate.
But the storm suddenly gathered intensity as it headed for land and made a last-minute turn that brought it ashore farther south, catching off guard many who had ignored evacuation orders because they thought they were safe.
By 5 a.m. (0600 GMT), Charley was about 115 milessouthwest of Charleston, South Carolina, near latitude 31.
By 5 a.m. (0600 GMT), Charley was about 115 milessouthwest of Charleston, South Carolina, near latitude 31. 2north and longitude 80.5 west, and its winds had reduced to 85mph (138 kph). It was moving north-northeast at 25 mph (40 kph)and packing winds of up to 85 mph (136 kph). One storm-related death had been confirmed in Florida byFrida y night. A tractor trailer truck, possibly pushed by agust of wind, crossed a highway median and fell on top of a carn ear Orlando, killing a child passenger in the car. Charley was blamed for four deaths in Cuba and one inJamaica aft er it formed in the Caribbean Tuesday. As a Category 4 storm -- the second strongest on a scaleused to rate hurr icanes -- Charley rated as one of the mostdangerous storms to hit Florida. Hurricane Andrew was believed to be a Ca tegory 4 storm whenit hit Miami in August 1992, causing $25 billion in damage. Itwas subsequently upgraded to a Catego ry 5. Hurricane Hugo,which caused $7 billion in damage when it hit South Carolina in1989, was also a Category 4.
And yes, I'd assumed snowbirds and young people. It's a shame that families of those old folks in trailer parks didn't take them to safer places. My elderly mother is in a state near there, but she'll be talked into evacuating before another hurricane hits there.
I really think this was a time issue. The hurricane was not supposed to hit this area, nor be this strong. These people may very well not have had time to get out before the hurricane hit.
Anyone see the RV's on their side on CNN?
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.
Thank you. Punta Gorda residents were "strongly urged to evacuate" Thursday evening. I can't imagine riding the storm out inside a mobile home as it appears many residents chose to do. This is so sad.
TOTALLY False. Don't believe the media morons.
24 hours is plenty of time, and you will not see evacuation orders given earlier, really.
I have read the posts of people here saying they were not told to evacuate the area, loved ones were not told to evacuate. The storm was supposed to go 150 miles north.
Well, it's interesting. RedCross official on Fox stating the "stacks of bodies" phrase is a little over the top. But reports now saying 60 body bags ordered to the trailer park and the LE is guarding bodies.
It's real bad no matter how it's described.
Prairie
And 2 refrigerator trucks. I think I heard CNN say Andrew death toll was 26?
I suspect local law enforcement would have transported an elderly person who asked to a local shelter, if they couldn't transport themselves and had no family to do so. (obviously, no way they could evacuate them totally out of the way.)
While some SHELTERS were damaged, I'm unaware of anyone dying in one.
(putting on flame suit...)
Could it be that, having the seniors, decided that trial by hurricane (being an act of G_D and all) thought that departing that would be easiest?
I sincerely hope not!
Flame away.
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