Taking stock of preparedness 14 years after Hurricane Charley

Today marks 14 years since Hurricane Charley slammed into Charlotte County as a powerful Category 4 storm, damaging 377,000 buildings in Florida and causing an estimated $15 billion in insured losses as it crossed the state, according to the National Hurricane Center.

While last year’s close call with Hurricane Irma provided a wake-up call for the area, the storm made landfall in the Florida Keys and Collier County, losing strength before it brushed Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties in September.

Charley, a small but potent storm with sustained winds of up to 150 mph, was the last major hurricane to strike Southwest Florida, and the first direct hit since Hurricane Donna ravaged this part of the coastline in 1960. Charley claimed 10 lives in Florida, but somehow killed only two people in the direct-hit area of Charlotte County. It was the most intense storm to hit Florida since Andrew in 1992.

So far, 2018 has been a relatively quiet season, but residents should not be lulled into complacency. Florida is entering the peak of hurricane season when Atlantic storms begin rolling off the western coast of Africa in late August to mid-September. This summer, Saharan dust has helped snuff out storms in the Atlantic, along with colder water in the ocean. Those factors, along with increased chances of El Nino conditions in the tropical Pacific — which tend to help suppress storms in the Atlantic — led the National Hurricane Center last week to reduce the number of storms forecast for the year.

But remember, it only takes one storm to wreck life as you know it.

Charlotte County and Punta Gorda rebuilt stronger and better after Hurricane Charley during a recovery that took years. Only a vacant lot downtown where the Punta Gorda Mall once stood along Marion Avenue and U.S. 41 serves as a visual reminder of the storm’s prolonged impact.

As the economy continues to boom, the county is in the first stages of adding several projects along surge-prone, shallow Charlotte Harbor that could change the face of the community.

Allegiant Airways announced plans last year to build Sunseeker Resort along Charlotte Harbor, a development that will include 720 condominiums, a 75-room hotel and a marina on 20 waterfront acres. When built, it would be the largest waterfront resort of its type in Florida.

Next door and closer to southbound U.S. 41, a sign advertises Charlotte Pointe condos on another waterfront parcel.

The construction raises the stakes for future hurricanes as the projects add significant density to an area of the county vulnerable to storm surge and rising waters. In south Sarasota County, growth has exploded in the West Villages and other parts of North Port. Two-lane River Road serves as a flood-prone hurricane evacuation route for much of North Port, Englewood and the barrier islands.

Florida’s population has grown from 17.38 million in 2004 to 21 million in 2017, further complicating efforts to safely evacuate residents during hurricane season.

No surge

While Charley intensified rapidly before making landfall on North Captiva Island near Cayo Costa, the storm was traveling at nearly 20 miles an hour. Because of its relatively small size (the eye was only about six miles wide, according the hurricane center) and its fast forward speed, the storm did not push a large storm surge like those seen in 2005 when Hurricanes Rita and Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

While it was bad beyond belief, emergency managers agree that Charley’s destruction of property and loss of life could have been much worse if the storm had been accompanied by a more typical Category 4 storm surge.

Although Charley was initially forecast to hit the Tampa Bay area, the direct-hit area was in the “cone of uncertainty” and under a hurricane warning. When the storm veered up Charlotte Harbor, most residents were hunkered down in their homes at the direction of emergency managers.

It was a terrifying ride through the storm, which snapped off the tops of mature trees, ripped off roofs and flung aluminum siding from mobile homes high into trees where they hung like white sheets. (This writer rode out the storm in a closet of her home in Deep Creek as the storm peeled off roof shingles, allowing tropical rains to pour in, which wrecked most of the interior.)

“No one near the landfall location should have been surprised by the arrival of this hurricane,” according to the NHC’s postmortem on Charley. But those in the direct hit area found themselves living in what resembled a war zone afterward, without electricity for several weeks as they attempted to clean up their properties in the mid-August Florida heat.

Irma’s threat

Last year, when Hurricane Irma formed and grew into a Category 5 monster with winds of 185 mph at one point, the storm spurred a record-setting evacuation of nearly 6.8 million Floridians high-tailing it out of state.

Irma revealed vulnerabilities in the state’s emergency evacuation plan. Evacuees ran out of gas along the route, sitting in traffic jams along Interstate 75 and other routes north. The state struggled to resupply fuel reserves. And few people had a plan in place of where they would go, what they would do and what they needed to take.

Residents also flocked to area retailers, quickly depleting supplies of bottled water and nonperishable food. Irma provided a good reminder of the importance of preparing early.

Many turned to shelters, which are designed to be used only as a last resort, and way too many people showed up without the necessary food, water and bedding supplies that the government asks them to provide. Sarasota County shelters took in 20,000 people and 3,000 pets, according to Emergency Management Chief Ed McCrane.

It was a wild experience, with a few scared souls (like this writer), remaining in neighborhoods that resembled ghost towns.

Area emergency managers always stress:

• Know your zone. Check your county’s website to find out which evacuation or flood zone your home is in.

• Prepare early. Hurricane season began June 1, and all residents were urged to buy necessary supplies to ride out a storm and survive should power be knocked out. The slogan states “the first 72 are on you,” but it’s wise to stockpile at least a week’s worth of food and water.

• Document. Prepare a pre-storm video or take photos of your possessions. Keep copies of your insurance policy, mortgage papers and other important documents in a portable, waterproof container. Load them onto a thumb drive or upload them to a secure server in the cloud.

• Stock up. Get prescriptions filled before a hurricane evacuation order is issued. Withdraw plenty of cash and fill your gas tanks, as Irma showed how quickly fuel supplies can be depleted.

• Never underestimate a hurricane or tropical system: Each storm poses a different risk depending on its size and strength, the amount of rainfall it produces and how fast it moves.

“Storm surge is the biggest threat to residents living along the coast on islands and low-lying areas,” McCrane wrote in the Herald-Tribune’s 2018 Hurricane Guide. “We live along the coast of the Gulf and can expect the potential of storm surge up to 20 to 25 feet in a severe storm.”

Vicki Dean is a freelance writer who now lives in Venice.

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