HURRICANE CHARLEY which destroyed some parts of Florida yesterday, is a category 4 storm. A Category 4 storm is considered a major hurricane, capable of destroying mobile homes and damaging small residences. For comparison, Charley was as strong as Hurricane Hugo, which killed 82 people and caused $7 billion in damage when it devastated South Carolina in 1989.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WEATHER/08/14/storms/index.html
Saturday, August 14, 2004 Posted: 4:49 PM EDT (2049 GMT)
• National Hurricane Center
HURRICANE CHARLEY
At 2 p.m. ET Saturday
Position of center: About 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Wilmington, North Carolina
Latitude: 34.8 north
Longitude: 77.9 west
Moving: North-northeast at nearly 30 mph (48.2 kph); motion expected to continue for 24 hours
Top sustained winds: Near 70 mph (112.6 kph)
Map: Projected path
PUNTA GORDA, Florida (CNN) – Hurricane Charley is responsible for at least 15 deaths in Florida, according to state officials and wire service reports.
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement official said the state medical examiner has confirmed five deaths.
That number did not include any deaths in Charlotte County, the area which took a direct hit from the storm.
Charlotte County Emergency Management Director Wayne Sallade told The Associated Press that 10 deaths had been confirmed but the exact death toll was not yet known.
“Not hundreds. I would hope that it would be limited to dozens, if that,” Sallade told the AP.
Sallade said that he had ordered 60 body bags and two refrigerated morgue trucks for the recovery effort.
He said sheriff’s deputies were standing watch with bodies around the town, waiting for recovery teams to arrive and remove them from storm debris.
In addition, Florida National Guard troops arrived to assist emergency officials assess the damage caused by Hurricane Charley, the storm that came ashore with winds of 145 mph (233 kph).
“Our worst fears have come true,” Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said after taking a helicopter tour of Punta Gorda, the town hardest hit by the storm.
“It is hard to describe seeing an entire community flattened,” Bush said.
Hitting Florida’s western coast Friday, Charley pounded Punta Gorda, a town north of Fort Myers, causing deaths and injuries and destroying houses and buildings.
The storm continued across central Florida, hitting Orlando before heading into the Atlantic Ocean at Daytona Beach.
After making landfall Saturday in South Carolina, Charley was downgraded to a tropical storm, National Weather Service officials said.
In Florida, dozens were treated for serious injuries, including crushed bones and cut arteries, according to Josh Putter, CEO of the Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda.
He said 50 or 60 injured people drove up “or dragged themselves into” his hospital in the hours after the storm passed Friday evening. The flow of patients stopped around 2 a.m. ET Saturday.
The hospital lost power during the storm, but emergency power kept it going, Putter said. Still, the damage to the facility caused him to order the hospital closed, which meant ambulances and helicopters from all over the state were sent in to transfer patients to other hospitals, he said.
At its worst, Hurricane Charley’s wind gusts topped 180 mph (289 kph) in Punta Gorda, Sallade said.
Major power outages
In the wider region, more than 2 million people were reported to be without power, and widespread building damage and uprooted trees were said to have been sighted from the Fort Myers area in the southwest – where the hurricane slammed ashore Friday afternoon – to Daytona Beach on Florida’s Atlantic coast. From there, the storm moved off the eastern coastline before midnight.
To the south, in Lee County, the sheriff’s office reported one hurricane-related death in North Fort Myers when a man in his early 20s stepped outside during the full force of the hurricane to smoke a cigarette.
A fatality was reported ahead of the storm Friday afternoon in Orange County when high wind blew a moving van into oncoming traffic on a freeway. A young girl was killed and seven others seriously injured, said Kim Miller, a Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman.
Florida Power and Light Co. spokesman Tom Veenstra said at least 858,000 people were out of power in the company’s service areas across the state. Progress Energy, which serves Orlando and central Florida, reported nearly 955,000 people had lost service.
President Bush declared the state a major disaster area Friday evening, making federal funding available for individuals and local governments dealing with the storm.
He plans to visit Florida on Sunday to survey the damage, White House spokesman Scott McCellan said.
On the campaign trail Saturday in Iowa, Bush said, “Many lives have been affected by this hurricane, and I know you join me in sending our payers to those people looking for solace and help.”
He added that the federal government was moving quickly in aid efforts.
In a statement Saturday, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry extended “heartfelt sympathies” to people affected by the storm and offered his “full support to the president and governor as the people of Florida rebuild their communities and their lives.”
Landfall in South Carolina
Charley came ashore for a second time, striking Saturday near Georgetown, South Carolina. It was much weaker but still had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph).
At 2 p.m. ET, the storm was centered about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Myrtle Beach and was moving to the north-northeast at 30 mph (48.2 kph).
The Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach’s strip of hotels and condominiums, was largely vacant as people evacuated ahead of the weather.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford issued a voluntary evacuation request Friday to include people in the vulnerable areas of Georgetown and Horry counties.
That evacuation primarily affected people on barrier islands or oceanfront property in low-lying areas or along rivers and streams. It also included mobile home residents and any areas specified by local officials. (Charley sweeps through Carolinas)
The path to landfall
At Category 4, Charley was the first major hurricane to hit the Fort Myers area since 1960 when Donna, a Category 3 storm, came ashore.
Charley had been expected to hit the Tampa Bay area and about 1.4 million people had been evacuated. But the storm made a slight turn to the east after it crossed Cuba and the Florida Keys, putting landfall instead near Fort Myers.
After crossing Cuba in the early hours of Friday morning and passing west of Key West, the storm strengthened to Category 4 and veered slightly to the east, making landfall several hours earlier than had been anticipated and farther to the south.
A Category 4 storm is considered a major hurricane, capable of destroying mobile homes and damaging small residences. For comparison, Charley was as strong as Hurricane Hugo, which killed 82 people and caused $7 billion in damage when it devastated South Carolina in 1989.