Those that went through Charley: Most memorable moments

[Josephine96]

For any of you who don't mind sharing. what was your most memorable moment{s} of Hurricane Charley..?

I actually have several..

#1: 2 local Mets showing Charley's early NE jerk, which put us here in even worse shape.

#2: Seeing Charley's fury explode transformers about a 1/2 mile away. Nice green lights in the night skies.

#3: The scariest sounds I've ever heard. Charley's howl, Charley's calm but quick eye.. objects hitting my house or being thrown against it, and my neighbors 30 ft tall oak tree crashing to the ground.

#4: Post Storm. Actually taking a bike ride around the city, to check out what the rest of the area looked like. Complete destruction in some spots, others not even scratched.

[cmdebbie]

1. "hunkering down"
2. water gushing in through the glass in my front door
3. water coming in through dining room windows onto wood floors (ouch)
4. watching my screened enclosure around the pool swaying in the wind for about 20 minutes before it finally came crashing down
5. watching my sliding glass door bow (never did break, but came awfully close)
6. making my crying children stay in the laundry room with pillows over their heads
7. the awful wind sounds coming down my chimney (sounded like a tornadoe)
8. not being able to sleep at all due to the excitement and heat
9. after storm passed, opening windows for the breeze, and all of my furniture feeling wet due to the humidity
10. having the front of my house torn down and rebuilt due to the moisture and mold in my walls
11. I still live with this nightmare everyday! The inside walls have still not been finished because my contractor quit in the middle of the job, and I have not been able to get anyone else out here to finish it. Screened enclosure gone still...13 - 15 month waiting list.
12. then came Frances
13. then came Jeanne
14. and the list could go on and on and on......

But, we are fortunate to have a home still and to have our lives and for that, I thank God everyday!!!

[cmdebbie]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I am in Oviedo, FL (North East of Orlando)

[Sanibel]

I evacuated, electing to not be a body found in the bushes.

My experience was a shattered island with emergency crews working around the clock. Stripped trees. No power, water, or sewer in serious heat and humidity. Not being able to get the electric shutters up with no electricity. Living in a heat box for several days. Taking a shower with 6 bottles of FEMA water. Trying to get the roof patched in a 140* plus attic. Keeping hydrated on the porch in 90 degree August Florida heat. Seeing national guard with machine guns in the street. Concrete power poles snapped and shattered like matchsticks. Large trees down in my driveway. Neighbor's tin torn off roof and gone. Piles and piles of debris and condo innards along the roads.

[k-man]

We were in rental home in Kissimmee, waiting to close on a house we bought in Orlando. For the entire previous day, we were told that it wouldn't be bad at all. We were expecting 60 mph winds at the most. We watched on the news as thousands of people from the Tampa area evacuated to the Orlando area.

On that Friday, around 1 or 2pm I was watching ABC and Tom Terry in Orlando said two things....that the storm was turning much sooner than expected and that it was a CAT 4! Thankfully we had batteries and water but it was then that we prepared even further.

We moved the kitchen table into the master closet so we could get under if we needed. We cooked up some frozen pizzas because we knew we'd lose power.

We watched that first ominous band move in...I'll never forget how that band looked...it looked like the world was coming to an end.

We lost power right away, got it back for a short period of time and then it was gone for good....little did we know for how long. We listened to the radio from that point.

As the eye wall approached we watched as the stockade fence that ran along the entire perimeter of the subdivision starting going down like dominos section by section. When the 6 foot high sections started to *fly*...we decided it would be a good time to get in the closet. We left the main section of the house just as one of those fence sections hit the pool enclosure and we watched it collapse into the pool.

And then it got really bad...all sort of creaking and things banging into the house. And then....it was quiet. We knew we were in the eye...we couldn't believe that the eye was passing directly over us!

And then as quickly as it got bad, it was over. The house that we were renting ended up not having power restored for 9 days. We left the next day and checked into the Portofino Bay resort with our three dogs. They were great there....gave us the Florida Resident rate and everything.

Our home in Orlando held up really well...lost one big oak, but thankfully, it fell into the street and didn't damage the house. We did just fine through Jeanne and Frances. They were a pain for sure, but neither frightened us the way that Charley did.

[CharleySurvivor]

I live where Charley landed and seeing trees go down from the wind like they were only 'toothpicks' was quite something to see also fences and sheds being shread apart and flying into the air.

After the storm ended and we got on the road; seeing the street signs gone (don't know where they went), trees topple on cars and houses, power lines and streets lights completely with their post down on the roads was quite impressive so see.

My most memorable moment after all the turnoil was when we got power back after 14 days, 'THAT' made me happier then anything else even if my house had lots of damage....getting power back was the biggest thrill!

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Did you guys go out into the eye of Charley or see it?

[CharleySurvivor]

Matt, from where I was in Port Charlotte, I was able to see Charley thru a window (was well protected because it was in an enclosed area) and was able to see where the eye was beginning - about a 1/2 mile ahead of me.

It was quite something to see that bright sun in the distance, and then a very well defined line where it stopped (the sky was completely gray over my house)

[k-man]

Did you guys go out into the eye of Charley or see it?

Well, it was dark outside so I don't think we would have seen much, and after seeing those 6 ft sections of stockade fence flying through the air like pieces of cardboard.....well, I sure as heck wasn't heading outside.

Charley was such a fast moving storm...the worst of it was over really quickly. And I remember being very thankful for that at the time. It's one thing to talk about all of the force of these storms, but when you're huddling under a table in a closet praying that the roof will hold...well, it's an entirely different thing.

Jeanne and Frances never reached that level for us in Orlando. We never got that ominious feeling in the pit of our stomachs that something really really bad could possibly happen. But we sure as heck had it with Charley.

It was after Charley that I found this wonderful site and now that I'm a Floridian I lurk here often when the Tropics start to fire up. I've learned a heck of a lot....and appreciate the site very much.

[Downdraft]

I left our EOC in Sanford at about 2:30 AM to drive over and see if I had a house left. I remember pulling out on US 17/92 ( a major north-south highway through Seminole County,) and no matter what direction I looked at there wasn't a light to be seen. It was as if someone had thrown a giant black blanket over the entire county. Eerie, creepy, and it was oh so still.

[Orlando_wx]

when we came back to work the next day in downtown Orlando I never seen anything like it trees on cars and houses power lines on the road looked like a war zone . One thing i was really puzzled about was i went to an intersection downtown were the traffic light was working in my direction but one was showing green and one was showing red at the same time.
really eerie went into a convenience store and seeing there is no cold food or drinks same with the supermarkets no cold stuff.

Something I wont forget for a while.

John

[Weatherman911]

I posted this in my weather newsgroup today.
_________________________________


Yes, there is alot of us who can never forget what happened on Fri. the 13th, 2004. I can't believe people are having a celebration of Hurricane Charley. Sick!!! People lost their lives and homes. The only thing that helps talking about what happened is so others who think hurricanes are cool, neat, what ever, you will never want to go through what we all did. You would also NEVER want to stay and ride a hurricane out ever again.

The only damage we had was broken pvc pipes for the well pump (new house, built 2001, new codes), and I'll never forget standing in a long line waiting to get parts at Lowes and seeing the hum-vees, was the National Guard with machine guns and the police to keep order. That sent chills down my spine. Hearing the constant sound of generators day and night. The calm still errieness after a hurricane set in.

It was my first real life experience with a hurricane, and hopefully my last. Been in FL. for about 5 yrs., and that was the first for me. I worked for the City of Cape Coral, and after Charley, I could not believe what had happened to the City. Destruction all over, and we didn't even get the full blunt of the hurricane like Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda on up did. Some reports we trickling in to the City by workers who went to help and told us what they saw. They were speechless.

At the time, I was living with my girlfriend in our house and we had no power and no water because we had a well pump. Power had to be restored from the power sub stations out to the houses. Hospitals, police and fire stations stations, and then government blds., and then homes and businesses were restored in that order. We had power restored about a week after. In my travels while I was working for the City, I could not believe what happened here in Cape Coral.

Gas was hard to come by because everything was stopped before Charley arrived. It took a good week or more before things started to return to a little normalcy for both food and gas.

Sorry, I'll have to continue with this later. Can't even write about it right now!!.......

I had a cam corder and camera, and I couldn't even get myself to use them. To sad to. Because I worked for the City, I saw more than most people could see. It was like a trama to me. I was depressed.

I started this photos of Hurricane Charley web site and never finished it, because, well, you know why. This is what I have for now.

http://www.geocities.com/weatherman9112 ... bSite.html

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

These experiences with Charley are similar to what I experienced when I lived in tornado alley and had a weak tornado move within 10 yards of me. Sounded sort of like a small bomb. Miraculously and fortunately, little damage was done to my home as well
as the neighbors.

IMO Hurricanes are like prolonged tornadoes that don't move much.

[CharleySurvivor]

Weatherman 911: reading your post brings back memories. So true what you wrote!

[Swimdude]

I can't even tell everyone how blessed I feel, here in Houston, to not have had a hurricane since 1983... Especially after reading your stories. And i'm usually praying FOR a storm.

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

My prayers go out to all those who suffered from Charley. I dodged
the bullet, but only at the expense of others getting slammed.

What's terrible is that there's been so much extensive development
during the less active 1970-1990 near the water that when one hits there is major disaster. Climatology of 1940s shows that during active cycles we get some hits.

I moved from an on-the-water location after being swamped by
surge from Josephine in 96. I now live at higher elevation, so
surge not too bad as long as we don't get a major.

[TheShrimper]

I think you are dramatizing a little too much about the destruction in Cape Coral. I dont live there but I work in the city and saw what went on. Outside of minor roof damage, the Circle K stores getting their facades blown away and of course the vegitation decimation, the area fared qiute well. Anything major was caused by small tornadoes contained in some bands, as the sustained winds were not that strong. I saw very few power poles snapped as was the case on Pine Island where I live. The power outages were due to Australian Pines taking down the wires. Many pool enclosure were lost, anything alumminum for that matter, but that is to be expected. The extensive damage to Lee County was taken by the Barrier Islands and Bokeelia on N Pine Island. Charley was to small of a storm to be considered a devastating hurricane. Not to lessen what happened to alot of people (me included), but it could have been so, so much worse.

[cmdebbie]

Exactly one year ago at this exact time, the winds really started picking up here. Ironic, right now here in Oviedo, FL we are having a horrible thunderstorm with high winds and major lightning right now. My children are "freaking" out asking me if this is another hurricane and if they can go hide in the closet.

I guess some aspects of Charley will remain with us forever!

[Eyes2theSkies]

the thing i remember most. was the first thunderstorm in one of Charleys feeder bands it was the biggest baddest storm I had ever seen. Anybody who lives in Orlando will probably remember it.

[Doc Seminole]

I will never forget enjoying Charley with my son and daughter. Totally unbelievable to watch the storm from a parking garage in Daytona Beach, being inches from the wind blowing by and yet not in it. The howling and the thunderous roar was awesome.

Doc