5 years later....Florida Today

[JonathanBelles]

This day 5 years ago, I was boarding and taping windows about to go through my first hurricane only 9 months after moving from NY trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Tomorrow is the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Charley...the first of four to impact the state of Florida in 2004. Still to this day, it frightens me to think what could have happened. I've been to many of the areas hit by the four hurricanes. I've been to Punta Gorda, Polk County, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, and Pensacola since 2004. I only saw what happened years after. Punta Gorda is much better than it was even before the hurricanes. Polk County has a lot of bare trees and knocked over trees from the area 3 hurricanes went through. In Boca Raton I saw trees with trunks 15 feet wide uprooted. In West Palm, I saw houses with holes in them and tarps on every other house. The story only slightly better in Pensacola where I only saw spotty blue tarps in November 2008.

If you have been in these areas since 2004 or have your own stories, please share.

[Scorpion]

Wow.. 5 years sure do fly

[Bocadude85]

This day 5 years ago, I was boarding and taping windows about to go through my first hurricane only 9 months after moving from NY trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Tomorrow is the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Charley...the first of four to impact the state of Florida in 2004. Still to this day, it frightens me to think what could have happened. I've been to many of the areas hit by the four hurricanes. I've been to Punta Gorda, Polk County, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, and Pensacola since 2004. I only saw what happened years after. Punta Gorda is much better than it was even before the hurricanes. Polk County has a lot of bare trees and knocked over trees from the area 3 hurricanes went through. In Boca Raton I saw trees with trunks 15 feet wide uprooted. In West Palm, I saw houses with holes in them and tarps on every other house. The story only slightly better in Pensacola where I only saw spotty blue tarps in November 2008.

If you have been in these areas since 2004 or have your own stories, please share.

Lol I live in Boca Raton so I remember 2004 and 2005 very well. No power for 2 weeks after Frances!

[Blown Away]

I experienced the eye of 3 hurricanes in 13 months, Frances, Jeanne, and Wilma. We had combined 5 weeks w/o power. Lots of damage in Hobe Sound, hundreds of homes destroyed, mostly mobile homes. Being honest, the experience was not worth the suffering and financial strain the storms caused my family, but when the 100+ mph gusts were flying the experience was like a drug for me, it was unbelieveable. The eye of Frances and Jeanne moved by during the night, Wilma's moved by at noon and there was absolute blue skies, birds, etc then the dark wall moved in very quickly, it went from calm to hurricane force in about 5 minutes, amazing experience! I've already decided once the kids are grown I will chase hurricanes!

[Scorpion]

Lost power for a week from Frances. It was frustrating because I couldn't track Ivan during that time, so hearing about it on the radio going to Cat 5 was pretty nuts.

[windsurfer77058]

We're recovering from Hurricane Ike. My mom lost her home in Bolivar. We're rebuilding, it's slow, Texas Windstorm insurance is terrible to deal with, many sad stories, people are very strong, I look forward to 5 years later, it's hard now. Another hurricane in this area this year .....I can't even think of it.

[Sanibel]

I can look at Australian pines by the beach that are snapped off and misshapen still 5 years later with abnormal tufts of new growth that don't look right.

Our black olive tree in the driveway was snapped off about 18 feet off the ground and was nothing but a bare trunk. It was a big bushy dense tree before Charley. Now it is a big round bushy ball recovering with 5 years growth but still not nearly as big as it was.

The big round Ficus tree at the neighbors was on CNN and the cover of the local paper. It was blown over with a big root flat sticking up. It was righted but you can see the dead branches of the old tree with a new growth ball growing in between them.

The mangroves up towards Captiva still have obvious dead patches in them.

Captiva Drive is starting to recover to its lush tropical landscaping look on millionaires row.

The new pass cut in North Captiva is still blasted open with a thin strand of sand beach filled in from the current.

[JonathanBelles]

I was wondering if the Captiva Island split was still there or not.

[Jagno]

Rita, Gustav and Ike victim here. I still find it amazing that after living here for 48 years and never having a direct hit that our bustling little city could go to ruins so fast. We lost people, businesses, structures and most of all, by the third hurricane, security.

Given this economy now you can add fear to this list. Just this week the rumble of tropical activity and the possible Tx/La threat has folks worried sick because they cannot afford to be on another "hurrication" for weeks at a time. Another major concern is that, because of some Katrina thugs, most places are very reluctant to allow anyone from Louisiana to stay in their facilities and the people do not want us in their little communities. Do you blame them? No, I don't blame them one bit but the good are still having to suffer for the bad in this case.

By the third hurricane, where businesses were not damaged, the economic damage took it's toll. People were spending money to rebuild their lives instead of shopping for non-essentials. Most of the mom and pop retailers had to close their doors and go out into the workforce themselves because their business income was gone. This was print shops, fabric stores, hardware, feed stores, tux shops, .................Now we have only the corporate giants remaining and it certainly isn't the same.

Everything is different. Some places have new faces in old locations. Some have new locations altogether. Some are still fighting with insurance companies and Fema on rebuilding under new and ridiculous codes. Apartments popped up everywhere and are full to capacity. Lots of new faces as many Katrina residents that took shelter here had nothing to go home for and simply started their new lives here. Most homes that were abandoned and heavily damaged have now been bulldozed and empty lots remain with slabs and overgrowth of landscape.

I know the only thing in life that is consistent is change. Nevertheless, I miss my old hometown and most of all the security.

[Extremeweatherguy]

Charley was quite an event. I lived in Winter Park, FL at the time, and I can still remember how crazy that day was when he blew through town. So many trees were downed, and so many homes were damaged, it felt unreal. I have yet to go through another weather event that matches the exhilaration I felt during Charley's dark-of-night passage.

Here are some pictures I snapped of the damage in my area the next day...

[cyclonic chronic]

in certain areas of port charlotte, where they built streets in the 80's but no one's ever built property on them, u can still see tree damage. punta gorda is now deffinately much nicer than before. i remember driving down 75 for months after the storm and for about 4 miles on either side of the peace river u couldnt find a leaf on a tree. then all of a sudden its nice and green with only moderate tree damage. charley was such a small system. imagine if he'd been a wilma, katrina, or ike sized storm. thered have been damage like that from ft. myers to almost tampa/ st. pete. my mom put in a garden earlier this year at their house (punta gorda) and kept pulling roofing shingles outta the ground that had been covered up by 5 yrs of growth, and my granmothers pier on the canal (punta gorda isles) finally collapsed into the water this year, it was brand new before charley. anyways i was living in chicago when it hit, but moved down about 6 weeks later to help take care of my ailing father. id never really been interested in tropical cyclones till then. it blew my mind that mother nature can take a place and virtually destroy in a matter of hours what man has been building for decades. so if theres one thanx i can give charley its for giving me the inspiration to become a weather nerd and hurricane geek!!

[KWT]

I remember charley, it was the first hurricane I followed with intent and boy did I pick a good one to start with...I'll never forget those 6 short hours where Charley exploded and bombed heading into Florida, simply amazing...3 hours longer over water and it would have probably been a category-5...of course 9hrs later and shear would have started to ear it apart...amazing stuff there!

[CrazyC83]

in certain areas of port charlotte, where they built streets in the 80's but no one's ever built property on them, u can still see tree damage. punta gorda is now deffinately much nicer than before. i remember driving down 75 for months after the storm and for about 4 miles on either side of the peace river u couldnt find a leaf on a tree. then all of a sudden its nice and green with only moderate tree damage. charley was such a small system. imagine if he'd been a wilma, katrina, or ike sized storm. thered have been damage like that from ft. myers to almost tampa/ st. pete. my mom put in a garden earlier this year at their house (punta gorda) and kept pulling roofing shingles outta the ground that had been covered up by 5 yrs of growth, and my granmothers pier on the canal (punta gorda isles) finally collapsed into the water this year, it was brand new before charley. anyways i was living in chicago when it hit, but moved down about 6 weeks later to help take care of my ailing father. id never really been interested in tropical cyclones till then. it blew my mind that mother nature can take a place and virtually destroy in a matter of hours what man has been building for decades. so if theres one thanx i can give charley its for giving me the inspiration to become a weather nerd and hurricane geek!!

If Charley had the footprint of Katrina or Ike, it may have been worse or not as bad. It would likely have been much weaker (about 115 mph instead of 150 mph), so local damage would not be quite as great - wind wise. However, Fort Myers, Naples and other places below the eye would have been inundated with a huge storm surge...and other places far from the track would have been heavily impacted as well.

[scogor]

Today's edition of the Sarasota-Herald Tribune has several articles on Charlotte County 5 years after Charley.

[JonathanBelles]

On this Friday the 13th in 2004, I had just spent a sleepless night watching Charley. At this hour I was still waiting for it to make the turn (if I have my hours right, I wasnt watching a clock in 2004). I remember my cat just sleeping the day away like I wish I could do. I think I watched ABC Action News or Bay News 9 for 36 hours straight switching to the other channel when I got tired of seeing somebody's face. It was just a few hours until Don Gremaise from ABC would make his nationally televised report from Punta Gorda. That hotel they stayed at and the one we watched the roof peel off is now gone, and is being replaced the last I heard. We only got some of the windows boarded and a few others taped, a near mistake hours later.

[HurricaneBelle]

I don't think I've ever been so scared or concerned about a tropical system than the Thursday night before Charley, living in the Tampa Bay area. I managed to get to sleep that night, but woke about 5AM to the first outer feeder band going through, and thinking that it was a taste of what was to come. Got everything boarded up that morning, and as soon as we wrapped things up by late morning, it was apparent that Charley would end up going in well south of the TB area. Never felt so relieved in my life, although obviously Tampa Bay's gain was Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte's pain.

We ended up having worse weather the next day when the low pressure trough that steered Charley spawned a squall line that came through.

[srainhoutx]

At this hour in 2004, we were without power in the Lower Keys due to a sailboat in the main power transmission lines near Big Pine Key. We were talking frequently with friends in Englewood, FL ( who also owned a home in the Lower Keys ) letting them know what was happening in our area and preparing them for what was headed toward SW FL. I, or my family will not soon forget our experiences in 04, 05, and again last year in SE TX.

[jasons2k]

The thing I remember most is telling my relatives in the Tampa Area on Thursday "Get ready, because this is probably going to be the 'big one'" and then the next morning being so relieved (Sorry SW FL folks) that Charley turned East.

[Ptarmigan]

I can't imagine going through multiple hurricanes within weeks apart like in Florida in 2004.

[brunota2003]

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/tbw/TopN ... ersary.htm