Charley's death toll

[HurricaneBill]

It's getting very weird. Earlier, they were saying stacks of bodies were at mobile homes in Punta Gorda. Now, I think that area has said only 4 deaths. I also heard they finished the searches in the mobile homes and are moving on to other areas.

They refuse to say if any bodies are in the refrigerated trucks.

I'm not gonna go claiming there's a mass conspiracy like that wacko did with Hurricane Andrew's death toll. (Honestly, if the government was trying to cover up the death toll of Andrew, don't you think the media would have figured it out?)

I just want to know what is going on. Was there a large loss of life or no?

[mascpa]

The most recent number I have seen is 17.

[tallywx]

Time to revive the "Hurricane Andrew Coverup" article for a good laugh:

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/hurricane.html

[rbaker]

personally, I don't think there is going to be a massive lost of life, because alot of those mobile homes were empty, because they are occupied by the snow birds in the winter, not in August.

[vbhoutex]

Part of the problem they are encountering here is the fact that many of the residents were probably up north at this time of year and have not been able to report back in due to the massive communications infrastructure destruction by Charley. Also many who did evacuate to other locations are probably not having an easy time getting back to whatever they have to go back to an become accounted for besides the comm problems noted above.

[Matthew5]

It is very hard for me to believe that a cat5 hurricane, like Andrew, did not cause more death. If we look at histroy, there been many of times where thousands(In some cases hundreds of thousands) died with alot less. Look at the tropical low that hit Hati this May 3,300 people died. Charley went right across central Florida which doe's have more towns and citys then the southern part of the states in which Andrew went over. It is just very hard to Believe

[EmeraldCoast1]

Storm surge is what kills most people that are still around in a storm. We all know that now. Accidents are the second leading cause, i.e. tree falling when someone steps outside to take a look or auto accidents / electrocution.

Most people, and I'm talking the overwhelming majority, survive through these storms because they stay inside and use their heads. Most structures are safe enough for human beings to have a reasonable chance of survival if the structure is breached. How many times have we heard first hand accounts of someone describing what is like having the roof blow off of their house? The point is...THEY LIVED.

Comparing a mobile home park in Port Charlotte, Florida, United States to a village in Haiti is crazy. Plenty of poor people live in shacks on hills that become deadly mudslides during hurricanes.

[opera ghost]

6000 died in 1900 on Galveston island. Why? Because they weren't evacuated and the storm surge essentially washed the barrier island clean.... anything the storm surge didn't kill the winds probably got. (get on the roof to escape the surge- get blown off the roof by the wind)

If you are out of the way of the dangerous waters- and have some protection from the dangerous winds- most people will survive a hurricane. There's always your surprise- a Uhaul gets picked up and thrown down on the house killing everyone- but for the most part the building codes in permanant structures have advanced to the point where people outside of ground zero can usually live through it.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that we have so few deaths in this day and age. Information, available shelter, and advanced building codes together cut down the deaths drastically.

Had there been todays storm information and access to the people- the 1900 hurricane might have been a disaster- but the island would have been evacuated well in advance and the loss of life would have been much MUCH smaller.

[rbaker]

inland flooding is now considered by the nhc to be the leading cause of death during a hurricane.

[c5Camille]

yes... i believe that Camille killed quite a few
people... in many states as it progressed NNE...
I believe the flooding in West Virginia was deadly...

[caneman]

One day, storm surge will kill again. As there are still too many people who don't evacuate. It is unbelievable to me that more people didn't die in this from storm surge. Any ideas on how high it actually was? I've heard anything from 7 ft. to 14ft.

[opera ghost]

I don't think they're going to know for a while yet- still trying to get into all the areas damaged. I'd guess we'll have some hard numbers to look at (surge, casualities, wind spread maps, etc etc) a month-2 months after landfall. For the moment the focus is on helping those in the worst hit areas

[Guest]

350 MPH winds?! .... what is the National Hurricane Bureau?....
emergency alert !?! that is what my 7 year old use to say when he played fireman when he was 4 y.o.

Time to revive the "Hurricane Andrew Coverup" article for a good laugh:

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/hurricane.html

[Lindaloo]

tallywx, how do you know that nexus article is bogus??

[Brent]

Time to revive the "Hurricane Andrew Coverup" article for a good laugh:

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/hurricane.html

I was doing a search on Andrew back on a boring winter day and stumbled across that. What a pile of you know what.

The Florida death toll is 17. I'm surprised(but thankful) it isn't higher. Storm surge and flooding though is the biggest killer and neither one was a big problem because A. The areas suspectible to surge were completely evacuated and B. The storm was moving fast and the flooding was only isolated.

[opera ghost]

Well the likelyhood of 350mph winds... come on Linda You've been around here long enough ot know that's just not feasable. Especially not "quickly escalated" from 214. 136mph jump from a windspeed that's generally considered next to impossible to a windspeed never heard of in the atlantic?

"On the afternoon of September 2, 1935, hundreds of people stood on the train platform in Matecumbe Key, Florida, anxiously awaiting the arrival of an evacuation train. The U.S. Weather Bureau had sent warning that a powerful hurricane was moving in from the Caribbean, and no one along the low-lying beaches of the Keys wanted to be in its path.
For hours, they waited at Islamorada Station as the train was held up in Homestead, delayed by red tape. By the time it finally arrived, so too had the most intense hurricane to strike the U.S. coastline in recorded history.
As the Labor Day Hurricane blew in, its winds roared with unimaginable force - more than 200 mph. Those waiting on the train platform were literally sandblasted beyond recognition, their clothes and skin sheared away. Even the smallest objects became deadly projectiles. Sheet metal and lumber were hurled through the air, impaling some victims against trees, decapitating others.
It was a gruesome scene, and one, thankfully, which has not been replayed to that extent since."

If the Labor day hurricane sandblasted victims to death with windspeeds in excess of 200mph- I can't beleive that *anything* anything or anyone at all would have remained at 350mph.

[7635]

cnn reports some of the 17 died after the hurricane pass from car accdents and heart attacks?could this be a way to up the death toll?

[Hurrilurker]

Time to revive the "Hurricane Andrew Coverup" article for a good laugh:

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/hurricane.html

That would be hilarious if it were not totally true!!!

My favorite part? "I'll shoot your damn asses!"

[Guest]

I would say that storm surge was the biggest killer back in the day when there was little to no warning & hurricanes caught people off guard on the coast & out by the barrier islands.Today wind from a storm like this should be the biggest concern for bodily harm as we have all seen the images of what wind like this can do.

[Scott_inVA]

yes... i believe that Camille killed quite a few
people... in many states as it progressed NNE...
I believe the flooding in West Virginia was deadly...

Virginia.

~153 people died in Virginia. Six were in Rockbridge County where I am located and can show folks the creeks still running that Camille created.

Next door is Nelson County; that's where most died (125-135). Houses remain buried today with victims inside from mudslides. 31 inches of rain fell in about 16 hours on the mountains here. At that time, Camille was "just" a Tropical Depression.

Scott