I just have one question: WHY were these people not evacuated? It looks as if the wrong town was told to evacuate with many going into the hurricane! This is a tragedy, and I do pray that the casualties are not too great. I really also don't like to get political about such things, but I really have to say that people were warned that these storms would become more frequent and more violent, based on the conclusions of many scientists that global warming (climate change) is indeed here and escalating. I will also say that the Bush administration's indifference to this issue and not taking it seriously (while not being able to stop the hurricane) certainly could now admit this exists and realize that it is an issue that is just as important as terrorism. For what are hurricanes but ecological terrorism? These types of intense violent storms will cause great loss of life and loss of billions of dollars. I looked at some pictures of the devastation and it looks like parts of Iraq now. Mother nature has her own brand of shock and awe, and we better start paying attention. My prayers and good thoughts go out to all in Florida who were hit by this storm. Also notice the lack of national guard help in this so far. (WHERE IS JEB BUSH? Hoping all those killed were Democrats so they can't vote in November? Yes, I know that is cruel to say, but that is because after reading up on these people, and from experience in seeing how their hateful minions think and talk, I wouldn't be surprised.) Perhaps if the national reserves weren't in Iraq guarding pipelines and occupying the country under the orders of the military industrial complex, they would be here to help our people as they were trained to do. I definitely think people need to question why Tampa Bay was told to evacuate when the worst of the storm didn't even hit there.
Jan

Charley Causes 'Significant Loss of Life'
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
Publication date: 2004-08-14

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - The death toll from Hurricane Charley rose early Saturday, when a county official said there had a been "significant loss of life" 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.

A slightly weaker Charley bore down on the South Carolina coast early Saturday, and the center was expected to approach the coast by morning.

In Florida, hundreds of people were missing in Charlotte and thousands were left homeless, Sallade said. He compared the devastation with 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which the National Hurricane Center directly blamed for the deaths of 26 people, 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 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.

Three hospitals in Charlotte County sustained significant damage, Sallade said, and officials at Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda said they were evacuating all patients Saturday.

More than 200 ambulances - many from southeast Florida - were organized to transfer patients to other hospitals in Orlando, Sarasota, Tampa and Lee County.

"We really have to get the patients out of here. 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."

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 5 a.m. EDT, the center of the storm was in the Atlantic Ocean, about 115 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 later Saturday. A hurricane warning was issued from Altamaha Sound, Ga., north to the North Carolina-Virginia state line. From there, a tropical storm watch extended north to Sandy Hook, including the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. A tropical storm warning was issued from Sandy Hook north to Merrimack River, including the New York Harbor and Long Island Sound.

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.

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On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

Publication date: 2004-08-14


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:o Excellent question JAN! I understood residents WERE TOLD to evacuate BUT....... unless it's a FORCED ISSUE and "human nature" being what it is.........well :?: :?: :?:

I HATE to be "the bearer of bad news" BUT........WHAT IF :?: :?: :?:

If HISTORY is any barometer than the "odds of 1 or more" occurring before the NOVEMBER ELECTIONS are VERY LIKELY :angry:

If FLORIDA CAN'T VOTE THEN :?: :?: :?:


Have a nice day :) ......................Andrew Paul

I can believe they were told of the hurricane and the need to more than likely evacuate, but based on the article telling us that people were actually driving East into where it hit the worst, the warnings in that area obviously weren't as urgent where the eye actually did hit. That is really what bothers me. With all the sophisticated Doppler rader and other weather equipment we have, and with Florida being experienced in being hit by these types of storms, it doesn't fit that this area wouldn't have gotten just as urgent a warning... The South Carolina highways were jammed with people leaving Tampa Bay... I suspect that had those in Punta Gorda been given just as urgent a warning, many of them wouldn't be dead now. I think someone has some explaining to do.

Jan

:o TRUE, jan! Some EXPLAINING needs to be done! I don't THINK their gonna have much of a chance knowing the way the govt. works! There are more hurricanes forming (I am sure) as we speak!

I SAY when SOMEONE tells ya to "get the hell out of dodge" ......then do it!

PEOPLE WERE WARNED...........BUT DIDN'T TAKE THE ADVICE!

Have a good one.........................Andrew Paul

Well, I agree about getting out, but to me it all depends on how the warning is delivered and what is said regarding it. Many who only hear there is a likelihood of it striking, or that it will only pass by would rather batten down the hatches and ride it out. However, if you tell someone the eye of a category four hurricane is going to hit them square center and if they don't leave they will die, I think that tends to move people quicker. I know even in that event some would still chance staying, and that is their choice. I am simply wondering how many of those who were killed were there by choice, or were there because they didn't think the danger was as great as it was, because that isn't what they were told. :(

Jan

Yesterday, I was concerned about my father who lives in Northern Florida...he was fine but my father-in-law and cousins on my husbands side were in Polk County. They are ok thank goodness. Some of them evacutated by my father in law is stubborn and he stayed home..just hard-headedness. Also, people fled Tampa, headed toward Orlando. The people did not know where to go to evacuate.

:o Hmmm.......jan :( I HONESTLY don't know the answer to the questions you pose :unsure: I do think that some folk HEAR the warnings and for what-ever reasons CHOOSE to ignore them :?:

THIS should be a WAKE-UP call to those folks BUT I am sure that there will ALWAYS be those who choose to stay and face their consequences.

I mean...........let's face it..........THEY WERE TOLD TO EVACUATE (half-way down the STATE of FLORIDA) weren't they?

AND ErinB.....NEXT TIME (be like Clint Eastwood) ask your father-in-law if HE IS FEELING LUCKY :blink: Just a thought :)

Have a cool day........................Andrew Paul