Charley: Aftermath 1

We were overwhelmed without water, power or a roof we could not live in our home. The friends we rode out the storm with offered to let us stay there but there was already a house full there. My parents, sister and her family came down on Saturday the 14th to help get the cleanup started. They offered to let us stay with them for a few days. We accepted.
We stayed in Bradenton (about an hour and a half north of Punta Gorda) for two days. At my folks house we saw television and newspapers for the first time since the Charley knocked out our power. One thing that bothered me abou the news coverage was that most of the video was of trailer parks. There was a lot more flattened by Charley than trailer parks. On Monday one of my wife's co-workers was going north for a week and said we use her home in Englewood. We accepted that offer as well and were about an hour closer to home and work. We began to look for the FEMA offices and the comfort stations. We needed food and water. We had brought some food with us when we left the house but with both our workplaces closed we didn't know how long that would hold us. As much as I dislike port-a-potties there were a welcome sight when no business or pulic building had water. There also groups all over serving free food and drink. Again this was a welcome sight as we searched the county for information and supplies for trying to get things back to normal. My sincere thanks goes out to those volunteers who made life more bearable for all of us through this tragedy.

Charley:Going Home

After looking around our host's property we thought we would see if we could make it over to our own home to take a look around. It was a very cautious drive over there were downed trees and power lines all over. It was however, still passable with great care. As we reached US-17 we saw utility poles and power lines down for miles. We had already passed several homes damaged from fallen trees or missing roofs. It was difficult to see very much so soon after the storm because of the trees and debris had not yet been cleared. We looked around with anxiety at the damage wondering what had become of our home. On the way down our street we noticed our neighbor's front porch was no longer there. We saw aluminum littering the Brazilian Peppers on the other side of the street some was from our neighbor's porch, no doubt, but I was certain that some had come from our home.
We had expected the utility sheds not to survive beyond that we were not sure what to expect. We were in no way prepared for what we found. No matter how many pictures of this sort of thing you see on TV or in the newspaper you are not prepared for seeing it in real life. There is no comparison. The first thing that drew our attention was the travel trailer. It had been sitting next to the driveway. It was now thirty feet to the north. Two feet from where it now rested was a five foot tall bottlebrush tree that the trailer had gone OVER. Our thirty foot Coachman Catalina had been tumbling and was roughly five feet in the air! This realisation took a moment to sink in. As we continued to assess the damage we noted that the roof-over was gone, the carport, utility sheds and well pumps destroyed, and the electric lines down. We had very mixed emotions. Our home was still standing and relatively fine inside apart from a few leaks and some broken dishes, but outside was a scene of extreme violence.

Part of the carport or roof-over wrapped around the Brazilian pepper out front.

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The utility shed ( this one housed the well pumping system).

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The travel trailer (note the small tree next to it)

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Carport & Home (note the insulation all over) The travel trailer used to sit in the left foreground.

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Friday The Thirteenth: Charley's Coming

On the morning of 8/13/04, my wife and I were discussing what to do about evacuating. If Charley stayed offshore and headed for Tampa as forecast we should only see 70-80 mph winds and be safe at home (we live in a home that is part mobile home and part frame). Just to be safe we decided to stay at a friends home about 2 miles away. That turned out to be a wise decision.
At our friends home we watched the weather on a big screen tv not expecting much from this category 2 hurricane that was going to skirt us on its way further north. About an hour and a half before it was to pass by however everything changed. Charley had suddenly become category 3 and had turned just a bit more east. Still not a threat for a direct hit but things would be a bit worse than expected. Our host wondered aloud if we shouldn't perhaps leave to go further inland. About that time the news bulletin came that Charley was a category 4 storm and that it had changed course again. We watched anxiously as the weathercaster plotted the new course on the radar images and the arrow he drew pointed directly to us!
My friend really wanted to leave now but the weather was already very bad as evidenced by several trees that had fallen on the property. I told him if we left now there would be trees and powerlines on the roads as well as the fact that we definitely would be safer in a house than in cars. We decided to stay.
As the storm came closer more trees fell. We bagan to see debris flying everywhere (we later discovered that most of what we saw was part of his barn and a storage shed). I all some 60 trees were toppled. evantaully the pool cage fell as well. At the height of the storm I heard the "freight train" sound of high wind ( I have a train track at the edge of my back yard so i am very familiar with what a train sounds like). We survived with the house for the most part intact and once the winds died down we ventured out to explore the damage. The next few pictures will show you what we found.

The Barn

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Storage Shed Next To Barn

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Pool Cage and Broken Trees

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On Your Mark...

Ok I have got my profile in place and am working on getting some thoughts about Charley and to a lesser extent Frances organized. But first I may have to deal with Ivan. Jeezo-Peezo! Enough already. I hope the forcast track changes or something. We are still reeling from the damage that Charley coused to our home and town and jobs. It is hard enough to find a job let alone a tech job in this county. Without knocking down businesses and knocking out power. We need a break down here!!!

Actually this is me!

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Hello From Nowhere More or Less

This is the initial post for my blog. I live in Morgantown, Fl. (I you just have to know where that is go to MapQuest and look it up). For a general idea we are just a bit north of Punta Gorda, Fl. Before you ask, yes we were smacked around a bit by hurricane Charley. I intend to go into that more in some subsequent posts. That is all there is now until i get a little more organized and start with the Charley Posts in the next day or two.