Hurricane
Charlie 2004
Punta Gordia, Florida
|
Introduction |
| Pictures |
| Video |
| Travel Log |
| The Essay |
| Tech Data |
| Links |
\hurricane\charlie04.html
| Friday, August 13th, 2004 |
Here's a link to the video clip of our on-air interview on ABC-TV (WPBF Palm Beach, Florida) from August & 20th, 2004.
http://www.bnvn.com/weathervine/charley/chris_jeff_abc1.wmv
http://www.bnvn.com/weathervine/charley/chris_jeff_abc2.wmv
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You may also support the Disaster Relief Fund
at the American Red Cross by calling 1-800-HELP-NOW or making a secure, on-line
donation at www.redcrossnca.org. |
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Monetary Donations are needed at this
point. When determinations have been made that specific relief
items are needed the Salvation Army website will have updates. In
the meantime, donations can be made online on the link below or by calling
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Revised for better reading, more descriptive--Aug. 24, 2004
Chasing Hurricane Charley was one of the most extreme experiences of my life so far. Intercepting a Catagory 4 (Saffir-Simpson Scale) Hurricane with sustained winds around 145 miles per hour and gusts upto 175mph is something very sobering. I and the rest of the Weathervine crew have many stories, images and video to share with you.
Many days before departure Jeff Gammons emailed to "the lists" about the "disturbance" in the lower eastern Carribean. Model runs even that early brought it right up the West coast of Florida making landfall somewhere in either the Panhandle or West Gulf Coast. There was also a storm known as Tropical Storm Bonnie forming in the Gulf of Mexico. With both threatning parts of Florida the temptation to chase was too great and I started preparing my things.
I drove from Maryland to the Panhandle of Florida in one straight overnight drive (7pm to 8am). I can't believe I made it in 13 hours, must have been a record for not speeding (I typically didn't exceed the speed limit by more than 5mph). Once in the panhandle I joined with Jeff Gammons and Chris Collura around Tallahassee, Florida along I-10. There is the where I experienced the little bit of winds and rain from Tropical Storm Bonnie. We got moving right-a-way for Okeechobee, Florida.
If there was a way to save time we did it. We drove from Tallahassee to Okeechobee in 4 hours (another non-speeding record!), arriving around 2pm at Jeff's. Then, we only spent two hours getting our materials ready and Jeff moved his gear from his car to Chris's. We departed for the Tampa/Bradenton area sometime around 4pm and the route to Tampa area was another 2 hour drive.
Bradenton was our initial target area. Thinking Charlie was going to make landfall near there we figured it to be a good position because we could move north or south along I-75 to reposition if the storm repositioned, and we had east options to quickly move out of the storm surge area. However, the night proved to be an extensive one as we drove around and around looking for hotel accomodations. From arriving at 8pm in Bradenton, it would be 1am before we found a Holiday Inn in Sarasota....the last room available anywhere. I finally got to stop driving after 31 hours of driving without stop! We all dumped our gear in the room, looked at the models, check the radar (see if Charley was in view yet), then fell asleep sometime around 3am.
We only managed about 4 hours of sleep however, before we were up and checking the radar. By now, the Catagory 2 Hurricane Charley was coming into view and we started packing up and loading our gear. We finally checked out around 12pm and hit the road. We needed to get into the Beach area of Sarasota to start scoping out the area for our video. At this time it still was only to be a Catagory 2 or weak Cat. 3 when it made landfall, so we weren't too concerned. But when we got word that the storm was starting to wobble to the right (east) of it's track and we needed to quickly reposition south. This was when we finally upped our speed a little bit beyond the posted limits, but US 41 south was already clearing out, and actually there we a lot of other crazy drivers around flying up and down the road trying to leave or find shelter (a bad time to procrastinate). We had to make it to Port Charolette at least. Along the way we got this "rumor" that the Recon flight update brought Charlie to a Cat4 (140mph+) Hurricane and dropped over 9millibars in it's central pressure in an hour (unheard of). We didn't believe it at first, so were calling all our NowCasters and other chaser friends to verify the information. Moments later NWS/NOAA weather radio read the "Special Weather Statement" that confirmed the reports that jumped Charley from a Cat 2 to a Cat 4 in less than an hour.
Around Port Charolette we ran into both Doug Kiesling and Jim Edds right off US 41. We didn't chat long and knew there was little time. But we managed to get into Punta Gorda in time. It was cutting it close though. By the time we got there the police were off the streets and tropical force winds were already beginning to filter into the area. Jim Edds and his friend Mark were looking for areas to get the storm surge and we broke off with them a few blocks away and found what would be the best place to be for our needs....the Charlotte County Judicial Center building. We set-up and awaited the hurricane force winds.
Around 3:30pm the winds kicked into high gear and we started seeing the hurricane force winds. The Eye came through about 4:30pm and the winds calmed to venture out again around 5:00pm.
We left our protective area and headed out to see some of the extensive damage around Punta Gorda. Travel through the town was extremely difficult so we didn't venture far. We ran into Jim Edds and his now wrecked car. Mark wasn't far and we all started exchanging stories and comparing what we saw (and how close to death many of us came to). There wasn't much activity on the street just yet. We saw everything just as mother nature left it....destroyed. We quickly came upon some owners of a pub just a few blocks away. We also found Mark and everyone in our group was now accounted for. We then ventured around a bit and got some imagery of the destruction. But daylight was dimishing and we knew we had better get out of town before dark. So we headed out US 17 to I-75 and headed north back toward Sarasota and then back to Okechobee.
This was quite an experience and I really thought for sometime that death was knocking on my door. When you see some of the video you'll see exactly what I mean. All this and I'm sticking around since now we're looking at a system called Earl and that might be up in Louisana or Alabama on the Gulf coast. Seems this truely is (as anticipated) going to be an active Hurricane Season.
Other
chasers and links to their Hurricane Charlie Pages:
Jeff Gammons
Chris
Collura
Doug
Kiesling
Jim Edds
Mark Rackley
News Spots:
NBC
ABC WPBF - Palm Beach, FL
St. Petersburg Times
Click on image to see full size
Overview Map of Southwest
Florida |
Punta Gorda, Florida |
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