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Worried about flooding from Hurricane Charley, Pinellas County officials decided to take extraordinary measures. The day before Charley hit Florida, they released 163 nonviolent inmates on the condition that they return by Aug. 17. On Friday, 25 of them were still out there. "Obviously we're hoping people continue to return," said Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen, who said the inmates were not considered public safety risks. Patti Flanagan disagrees. The 46-year-old St. Petersburg woman says one of the released inmates assaulted and injured her. Chester James, 56, was subsequently arrested on a battery charge Tuesday, the day he was scheduled...

As the Republican U.S. Senate primary heads into its final 10 days, many voters are now paying attention - just in time for a blast of critical ads aimed at undecided voters. Doug Gallagher, a wealthy Miami business executive, launched a radio ad calling himself a "successful businessman" and labeling rivals Bill McCollum and Mel Martinez "the M&M boys." He called McCollum "a lobbyist beholden to special interests" and Martinez the "president of the trial lawyers." "We've tried it their way. Now let's try it our way," says Gallagher, who is financing his campaign with nearly $6-million of his own...

At the Republican National Convention in New York, Gov. Jeb Bush faced a week in the national spotlight, talk of a family dynasty and endless speculation about his own political future. Now he's not going. Bush, who does not relish such scrutiny, said he's too busy with the recovery effort after Hurricane Charley to see his brother nominated for a second term as president. "I know my brother knows that I support him," the governor said. "The work here is real important that we get it right ... This is what I got elected to do."

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) - Step by small step, life is returning to normal in this town hardest hit by Hurricane Charley. Things as simple as making a cell phone call or having a cold beer in a neighborhood pub are helping residents cope with the massive cleanup and repair efforts. That can be an important development in the recovery process. "I've heard people that have lost everything and they celebrate simple things like they have a dial tone or their cell phone chirped for the first time," said Craig Fugate, the state's emergency management director. "Businesses are coming back...

Kerry Visits Fla. Towns Hit by HurricaneBy MARY DALRYMPLE, Associated Press Writer PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - John Kerry waded on Friday into neighborhoods blown apart by Hurricane Charley, where he offered supportive words to families during his eighth trip to some of the most closely contested territory in this year's presidential election. "The courage of everybody is quite remarkable," the Democratic presidential candidate said after talking with residents still without power in one of the hardest hit towns. "These folks are unbelievable in their spirit." Florida decided the last presidential election so narrowly that Republican and Democratic campaigns are making...

O.K. panel... John Kerry was in Florida this week... While helping a seasoned citizen during a photo op, he was overheard to say: "Be careful don't step _________"

Below are the results of a three-day poll of likely voters in the critical battleground state of Florida for the presidential race. Results are based on telephone interviews with 801 likely voters in Florida, aged 18+, and released as indicated below. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. http://www.strategicvision.biz/political/florida.htm Bush-Cheney 46% Kerry-Edwards 47% Nader-Camejo 2% Undecided 5%

August 19, 2004 04:59 PM US Eastern Timezone Halliburton Joins American Red Cross to Help with Hurricane Charley Aftermath HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 19, 2004--Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) pledged $100,000 to the American Red Cross' Disaster Relief Fund, becoming the organization's newest member of its Annual Disaster Giving Program. Representatives from Halliburton toured some of the most devastated sites near Punta Gorda, Fla., to witness volunteer and support services provided to victims of last week's hurricane. "The American Red Cross' efforts in southwest Florida are extraordinary and Halliburton is proud to join the team to assist in any way possible the many people affected...

CHARLOTTE COUNTY – A week after Hurricane Charley, thousands of residents are refusing to leave their destroyed or severely damaged homes. Soon, some may not have a choice. Charlotte County building officials began inspecting homes Thursday. Where imminent danger exists, such as the risk of a wall or roof collapsing, homeowners will be ordered to leave, said county Building Official Jim Evetts. In other cases, landlords are forcing residents to move so that the buildings can be razed or renovated. But residents such as Darlene Bills say they'll stay as long as they can -- enduring the heat, insects, lightning...

CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- Police are stepping up efforts to stop looters from using the many canals here to gain access to houses and mobile homes damaged by Hurricane Charley. A thief aboard a boat this week burgled a woman's home along Alligator Creek, in the Windmill Village mobile home park. The park's management is urging residents to keep an eye on the network of canals here that connect to the creek, which leads into Charlotte Harbor. On Wednesday, resident Wesley Spence hobbled to a spot along a seawall behind his Windmill Village trailer, poked his cane at the floating debris...

..........Marcia Smith, Polk schools' food-service director, worked this week at Lake Wales High School, one of several schools converted into a feeding station. One family pulled up with five or six children packed inside the car and was full of appreciation for the free peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, milk and fruit they received. "Those children were so excited when we had food for them," Smith said. Even without Charley, food-service workers say they see evidence some children get little to eat beyond what's served at school. "They clean their plates, and they want more, and you just know that's...

For missing work to evacuate his mother, city employee James Gesicki lost his job. By LORRI HELFAND, Times Staff WriterPublished August 19, 2004 LARGO - When James Gesicki heard that Hurricane Charley was heading for Tampa Bay last week, he had one thing in mind: getting his 81-year-old mother who lived in a mandatory evacuation zone to safety.So last Thursday the 30-year Largo public works employee told two of his supervisors he planned to bring his mother, Catherine, to his Spring Hill home. Fine, they said. But show up for work Friday - the day the hurricane was expected...

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- It isn't among the first questions you ask after a disaster bulldozes your life; it comes after, ''Are my loved ones safe?'' ''How bad is the damage?'' and ''Is help on the way?'' But it might be the most difficult to answer: Why? Why, one asks, did this catastrophe happen to me? Hurricane Charley didn't have to stomp on Charlotte County like a celestial boot, prying off roofs, uprooting trees, smashing windows and gouging out homes as if with a cosmic trowel -- but it did. What, one asks, did I do to deserve having my...

[Excerpt] FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - (KRT) - Despite criticism that it should have better anticipated Hurricane Charley's rapid intensification and quick turn, the National Hurricane Center's forecast wasn't that far off, a preliminary post-mortem shows.When the storm was 24 hours away, the center's projected track was 45 miles from where it landed, on the barrier islands between Cape Coral and Punta Gorda, according to figures released on Wednesday.That almost cut in half the center's 10-year average error of 87 miles when a storm is a day away, hurricane center Director Max Mayfield said."That's pretty doggone good," he said. "It's a...

Cape Coral and Hurricane Charley August 18, 2004 By Mary F. Stump Cape Coral, Florida westump@earthlink.net Hey folks! We got back into town on Sunday afternoon, passed Punta Gorda and a mobile home village -- or what was left of it -- butted up against Interstate 75. There is nothing but debris -- aluminum, fiberglass, wood all strewn about in patternless fashion. Sign poles with directions and exits from I-75 are snapped off or broken in half, while the signs themselves are laying haphazardly bent and twisted on the ground or hanging on fences. Destruction on a massive scale like...

ARCADIA, FLA. -- A flock of ducks freed from their pen by hurricane Charley gathered in James Adams's orange grove yesterday, squawking loudly as they snacked on green fruit the size of golf balls that littered the ground. Branches from 200-year-old oak trees and royal palms snapped in half by the storm lay all over his 1¼-hectare property. Roosters roamed freely, liberated from barns destroyed in the Category 4 storm. Mr. Adams shook his head and rolled his eyes. Like most of the farmers in DeSoto County, the inland agricultural belt where Hurricane Charley unleashed its fury Friday, he has...

In the evening before Hurricane Charley hit central Florida, news anchors Bob Opsahl and Martie Salt of Orlando's Channel 9 complained that we "sure don't need" vendors to take advantage of the coming storm by raising their prices for urgently needed emergency supplies. In the days since the hurricane hit, many other reporters and public officials have voiced similar sentiments. There are laws against raising prices during a natural disaster. It's called "price gouging." The state's attorney general has assured Floridians that he's going to crack down on such. There's even a hotline you can call if you notice a...

PUNTA RASSA, Florida (CNN) -- Florida authorities reopened Sanibel Island early Wednesday, for the first time since August 12, when it was evacuated in advance of Hurricane Charley. Inspectors on the 12-mile barrier island declared 46 properties "seriously damaged" and "unsafe" and another 78 "damaged" with "questionable" safety. But Mayor Marty Harrity said he didn't think any property on the island was "completely destroyed." "There's some pretty heavy damage on the beach front," Harrity said, "but over the years we've had some pretty stringent building codes, and I think we really weathered this thing." "A little over a hundred hours...

To PCA members and all others willing to help: Our denomination, through the Mission to North America, has a relief presence on the ground in SW Florida. What follows is information from Covenant Life's website and links to MNA's website: As of Aug 18th: (new information below) The Disaster Relief Coordinators have set up shop here at Covenant Life's facility. Ron will lead a team this morning, and Judy will be here in our office doing call-backs and lining up other teams. Eventually they will need food simply to service those who return from helping. Again, we will keep you...

CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- As many as a dozen cars pull up in front of Morton's Ace Hardware in a busy hour. For the most part, their passengers aren't looking for nails or wood. They want to see the pile of rubble that has become one of the most recognizable images of Hurricane Charley. Soon, it'll also be one of the most common snapshots in the hands of the area's newest breed of tourists. Drawn by images of devastation on their television sets and a morbid fascination to see it themselves, the gawkers have come to Charlotte County. They clog up...