Post by "BIGTYME" on Aug 14, 2004 16:05:09 GMT -5
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (Aug. 14) - Rescuers rummaged through a chaotic landscape of pulverized homes and twisted metal Saturday, racing to tally Hurricane Charley's "significant loss of life" and help thousands left homeless by its vicious winds and rain. At least 15 people were confirmed dead.
As a weakened Charley churned into the Carolinas and was downgraded to a tropical storm, newly sunny skies revealed its destruction in Florida, where emergency officials pronounced it the worst to wallop the state since Hurricane Andrew tore through in 1992. Twenty-six deaths were directly linked to Andrew, which caused $19.9 billion in damage.
"Our worst fears have come true," said Gov. Jeb Bush, who surveyed the devastation by helicopter. Florida officials predicted damage from the Category 4 storm could top $15 billion - as much as the earthquake in Northridge, Calif., in 1994.
Ten deaths had been confirmed in Charlotte County, said Wayne Sallade, the county's director of emergency management, but no exact death toll was available. "It's Andrew all over again," Sallade said.
"We believe there's significant loss of life, he said, adding later: "I would hope that it would be limited to dozens, if that."
He said "thousands upon thousands of people" lost their homes. Hundreds were unaccounted for in the county, which includes Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, the apparent hardest-hit areas. Extensive damage was also reported on exclusive Captiva Island, a narrow strip of sand west of Fort Myers.
"Where do we go now? What do we do?" said 69-year-old Barbara Seaman, standing by the shell of a demolished building in Punta Gorda's Windmill Village Trailer Park.
The storm and its 145-mph winds knocked out power to some 2 million homes and businesses as it crossed from the southwest coast at Punta Gorda to the Atlantic at Daytona Beach. Some 1.3 million remained without power Saturday afternoon, emergency officials said.
President Bush, the governor's brother, declared Florida a federal disaster area and sent a mortuary team to help process bodies. The president planned a visit Sunday to survey damage, and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, in a statement, offered "heartfelt sympathies." Florida is a key battleground state for the November election.
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.
When it hit, the storm upended trucks, twisted traffic lights into unrecognizable shapes and lifted entire houses atop neighbors' homes. Entire trailer parks were splintered to their foundations and dazed residents wandered around neighborhoods, gathering miscellaneous belongings. At the Port Charlotte airport, small planes were stacked and snapped apart like toys cast off by an angry child.
"I've been through typhoons in Guam and I've never seen anything like this," said Charles Charwat, an 84-year-old retiree in Ormond Beach, on Florida's east coast.
There were five confirmed storm-related deaths elsewhere in the state. Deputies were standing guard over some bodies because they were in areas not immediately accessible by ambulances. Earlier, Charley killed three people in Cuba and one in Jamaica.
As recovery efforts began, Florida officials warned against price gouging and said violators would face heavy fines.
Hundreds of miles north, Charley's course took it across open ocean, missing the westward curving shore of Georgia. It made its second landfall on South Carolina's Grand Strand resort region, which was nearly empty after a mandatory evacuation of some of the area's 180,000 tourists and residents.
National Guard troops were on duty Saturday in North Carolina, where a mandatory evacuation order was in effect for vulnerable coastal areas hit less than two weeks ago by Hurricane Alex.
In Virginia, Gov. Mark R. Warner declared a state of emergency. Charley-related weather was forecast as far north as Massachusetts, the New York metropolitan area and swaths of northern Pennsylvania. All of New Jersey was under a flood watch Saturday afternoon.
The American Red Cross set up more than 250 disaster relief shelters in Florida and 40 shelters in the Carolinas. Staffers and volunteers were providing dry clothing, meals, first aid and counseling.
As people unbattened their hatches and emerged into the sunlight, the stories of nature's fury flowed.
"I could hear the nails coming out of the roof," said Anne Correia, who spent two hours in a closet in her Punta Gorda apartment.
"I could hear the nails coming out of the roof. The walls were shaking violently, back and forth, back and forth. It was just the most amazing and terrifying thing. I just kept praying to God. I prayed with my whole heart.'' -- Anne Correia of Punta Gorda
"A lot of us were holding the doors trying to keep them shut - using ropes, anything we could. There was such a vacuum your ears and head were hurting.'' -- Joyce Cuffe, Port Charlotte rehab and nursing center administrator
"If you want to meet your maker, I got close on that round. I'm not tight with The Man. But I'm tighter now." -- Jim Morgan, who with his wife initially took refuge at the Charlotte County Airport, which sustained heavy damage
In hard-hit Hardee County southeast of Tampa, Albert Whiteras, 56, said he had no idea the storm was coming until his daughter saw on the television news that it had changed direction.
"When you look at trees snapping in half in your backyard - Oh, my Lord, it was the most frightening thing I've ever seen in my life," he said. "I've been through these before. I know what they can do, but I didn't think it would do it."
Thirty-one mobile-home parks in Charlotte County sustained major damage, some with more than 1,000 units, said Bob Carpenter, a sheriff's spokesman. He said teams were sent to each park to search for bodies and survivors, but "we just couldn't get the vehicles in - there is so much debris."
Three hospitals in the county sustained significant damage, Sallade said. Officials at Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda said they were evacuating all patients Saturday.
"This place just isn't safe," said Peggy Greene, chief nursing officer. She said windows were blown out, part of the roof was blown off, and there was no power or phone service.
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."
As a weakened Charley churned into the Carolinas and was downgraded to a tropical storm, newly sunny skies revealed its destruction in Florida, where emergency officials pronounced it the worst to wallop the state since Hurricane Andrew tore through in 1992. Twenty-six deaths were directly linked to Andrew, which caused $19.9 billion in damage.
"Our worst fears have come true," said Gov. Jeb Bush, who surveyed the devastation by helicopter. Florida officials predicted damage from the Category 4 storm could top $15 billion - as much as the earthquake in Northridge, Calif., in 1994.
Ten deaths had been confirmed in Charlotte County, said Wayne Sallade, the county's director of emergency management, but no exact death toll was available. "It's Andrew all over again," Sallade said.
"We believe there's significant loss of life, he said, adding later: "I would hope that it would be limited to dozens, if that."
He said "thousands upon thousands of people" lost their homes. Hundreds were unaccounted for in the county, which includes Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, the apparent hardest-hit areas. Extensive damage was also reported on exclusive Captiva Island, a narrow strip of sand west of Fort Myers.
"Where do we go now? What do we do?" said 69-year-old Barbara Seaman, standing by the shell of a demolished building in Punta Gorda's Windmill Village Trailer Park.
The storm and its 145-mph winds knocked out power to some 2 million homes and businesses as it crossed from the southwest coast at Punta Gorda to the Atlantic at Daytona Beach. Some 1.3 million remained without power Saturday afternoon, emergency officials said.
President Bush, the governor's brother, declared Florida a federal disaster area and sent a mortuary team to help process bodies. The president planned a visit Sunday to survey damage, and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, in a statement, offered "heartfelt sympathies." Florida is a key battleground state for the November election.
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.
When it hit, the storm upended trucks, twisted traffic lights into unrecognizable shapes and lifted entire houses atop neighbors' homes. Entire trailer parks were splintered to their foundations and dazed residents wandered around neighborhoods, gathering miscellaneous belongings. At the Port Charlotte airport, small planes were stacked and snapped apart like toys cast off by an angry child.
"I've been through typhoons in Guam and I've never seen anything like this," said Charles Charwat, an 84-year-old retiree in Ormond Beach, on Florida's east coast.
There were five confirmed storm-related deaths elsewhere in the state. Deputies were standing guard over some bodies because they were in areas not immediately accessible by ambulances. Earlier, Charley killed three people in Cuba and one in Jamaica.
As recovery efforts began, Florida officials warned against price gouging and said violators would face heavy fines.
Hundreds of miles north, Charley's course took it across open ocean, missing the westward curving shore of Georgia. It made its second landfall on South Carolina's Grand Strand resort region, which was nearly empty after a mandatory evacuation of some of the area's 180,000 tourists and residents.
National Guard troops were on duty Saturday in North Carolina, where a mandatory evacuation order was in effect for vulnerable coastal areas hit less than two weeks ago by Hurricane Alex.
In Virginia, Gov. Mark R. Warner declared a state of emergency. Charley-related weather was forecast as far north as Massachusetts, the New York metropolitan area and swaths of northern Pennsylvania. All of New Jersey was under a flood watch Saturday afternoon.
The American Red Cross set up more than 250 disaster relief shelters in Florida and 40 shelters in the Carolinas. Staffers and volunteers were providing dry clothing, meals, first aid and counseling.
As people unbattened their hatches and emerged into the sunlight, the stories of nature's fury flowed.
"I could hear the nails coming out of the roof," said Anne Correia, who spent two hours in a closet in her Punta Gorda apartment.
"I could hear the nails coming out of the roof. The walls were shaking violently, back and forth, back and forth. It was just the most amazing and terrifying thing. I just kept praying to God. I prayed with my whole heart.'' -- Anne Correia of Punta Gorda
"A lot of us were holding the doors trying to keep them shut - using ropes, anything we could. There was such a vacuum your ears and head were hurting.'' -- Joyce Cuffe, Port Charlotte rehab and nursing center administrator
"If you want to meet your maker, I got close on that round. I'm not tight with The Man. But I'm tighter now." -- Jim Morgan, who with his wife initially took refuge at the Charlotte County Airport, which sustained heavy damage
In hard-hit Hardee County southeast of Tampa, Albert Whiteras, 56, said he had no idea the storm was coming until his daughter saw on the television news that it had changed direction.
"When you look at trees snapping in half in your backyard - Oh, my Lord, it was the most frightening thing I've ever seen in my life," he said. "I've been through these before. I know what they can do, but I didn't think it would do it."
Thirty-one mobile-home parks in Charlotte County sustained major damage, some with more than 1,000 units, said Bob Carpenter, a sheriff's spokesman. He said teams were sent to each park to search for bodies and survivors, but "we just couldn't get the vehicles in - there is so much debris."
Three hospitals in the county sustained significant damage, Sallade said. Officials at Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda said they were evacuating all patients Saturday.
"This place just isn't safe," said Peggy Greene, chief nursing officer. She said windows were blown out, part of the roof was blown off, and there was no power or phone service.
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."
