Hurricane
Charlie 2004
Punta Gordia, Florida
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\hurricane\charlie04\pictures3.html
| Friday, August 13th, 2004 |
Group 2 - After the Storm (Punta Gorda, Florida)
Group 3 - After the Storm (Arcadia, Florida)
|
Approaching from the west, this is the
begining of the damage path near Arcadia, Florida |
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There would have been so much more destruction
if there was more buildings, but Arcadia is a small town, and the outskirts are rural like this setting. |
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Getting closer to the eye's damage path.
Like tornados, you can see the rotation with in the damage. Most
of the west side of town had it's trees and debris pointing south-southwest.
When we came through Arcadia and were east of town, most of the damage
was to the north-northeast. |
|
Usually you see lush forests and palm trees
and big cypress pines. As you can see, everything is stripped. Looks
more like a northern climate winter now. |
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Most of the destruction occured over non-populated
areas. Imagine if this had been Tampa and surrounding communities....I
think it would have been a thousand time worse (yet this is still pretty
bad). |
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This old airplane is market the regional
airport entrance. Once the runway is cleared, supplies should be able
to get in easier |
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Parapet wall damage was common in Arcadia,
just like in Punta Gorda. These seem to be a weak point in a buildings
construction. Some reinforcment would help, but I'll be that less structures
will be built with Parapet Walls now. |
|
All too common source of debris (and commonly
the first things to fail) is signage. Store front signage really should
have a more defined code regulation. I don't know how many lethal metal
signs we saw flying through the air in Punta Gorda. These thin metal
sign are like razor blades even in small Cat 1 hurricanes....very dangerous. |
|
Many towns inland of the storm did not
do much to prepare. No boards on windows, not storm shutters, etc.
People expected the the track forecasts to be so accurate, but a little
last minute shift in direction meant a whole different area saw the hurricane
force winds. Arcadia is 40+ miles inland....so event this far in is
still very dangerous. |
|
Here's Jeff Gammons of Weathervine getting stock footage
of the long line of cars and trucks waiting to get gas. The line had
anywhere from 20 to 50 cars waiting at a time. There was volunteer
traffic control to get people in and out fast, and keep the tempers down.
It was affective. We saw very little in the way of aggressive
citizens.....everybody was helping everybody. |
|
Another shot of Jeff behind the camera.
Luckily for use, we filled-up in Okeechobee in a less known location.
Even though, we had to use high test (93 octane) since the lower grades
had been used up by folks looking to fill-up. |
|
Jeff peers over the supply camp. This
is were town residents came to get food, water, ice and other supplies. The
National Guard was here too, guarding banks, government buildings, preventing
looting, and keeping crowd control. |
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Jeff shot good stock footage of post-hurricane
relief efforts. This footage is available for sale at Weathervine.com
or by emailing Jeff Gammons
directly |