Hurricane 2004

My hurricane experience

I am writing this August 17th, 2004 while still on generator power. Cell phones still do not work very well at all. I apologize for it being so long, but I feel the need to write this and get all these thoughts out of my head.

Let me start by saying I am ok. I am one of the very lucky few that still have a livable structure. Hundreds if not thousands of families around here have no roof or no house left. I for some reason was spared this heartache. Any tree that would have fell directly on my house was left standing.

I want to thank all of my friends and family for being so loving and caring during all of this. As soon as they could reach me (by phone or in person) they were making sure I was ok and had any supplies I needed. I definitely have found my emotional side.

As far as damage, I have a couple of large holes through my roof, but am able to have these covered by a tarp & will wait until the people with no roofs are taken care of before I call to have them fixed.

I evacuated Charlotte Harbor about 10 minutes after the weather persons made the announcement that the hurricane had reached 145+ mph winds and was heading directly for Charlotte Harbor. My parents have a house in Arcadia (they were away in North Carolina) & I figured that was far enough away from the harbor that I would be fine.

I made it to Arcadia (with my dogs & not many supplies) about 30-45 mins before the hurricane hit the harbor. As the eye was passing through Punta Gorda & Charlotte Harbor they made the announcement that the hurricane appeared to be heading straight for Arcadia. About 10 minutes later I lost power in Arcadia.

When the storm first hit Arcadia it did not seem to bad, shortly after I would be very wrong. I started hearing very large trees around my parents house snapping like twigs and when I saw a 60 year old grapefruit tree bend over, touch the ground & then snap at the base of the tree I decided it was time to grab the dogs & take cover in the center of the house.

As we were heading for cover I could see the windows were being sucked open 1-1 ½ inches & then slamming shut. The wooden walls were making the worst creaking & popping noises I had ever heard. As I got the dogs in the bathroom that I was going to “hide” in, I kept hearing this slamming. I ran through the house to find out what it was & discovered the front door (even though it had been shut & locked) had been sucked open & was slamming against the house. I tried to shut the door again, but the hinges had been bent backwards so bad from being slammed open that I could not shut the door.

In a situation like this I guess you do not think very clearly. All I could think was I have to hold onto the door knob so that part of my parents house would not blow away. After about 30 seconds of me holding the door “shut”, the wind sucked it out of my hands and threw it across the yard. I guess I was holding on so tight that when the door “left” the house I followed it for a few feet outside. I got up went back inside & rode out the rest of the storm in the bathroom with my dogs.

It was about 14 hours before they cleared the main streets in Arcadia enough that I could try to get home. I had to drive up state road 70 to Bradenton (50 miles or so north of my house in Port Charlotte) to get out of Arcadia & get home.

When I arrived home I found Charlotte Harbor devastated. All the trees are either blown down or are bare of any leaves. My house like I said before has some roof damage, the garage is blown apart, most tress (including the 60-80 foot pine trees) are blown down, my shed & truck are under trees. But once again let me say I am one of the very lucky ones.

We have police from all over the state helping our police force. We are under curfew from 9pm til 6am. National Guard are everywhere helping maintain order, they fly their helicopters over constantly.

Rescue workers and volunteers are here from all over the country. Power companies from as far north as Maine. I even saw power company workers from Shelby, North Carolina.

This has definitely been a learning experience & I hope I never forget it.