Monday, August 16, 2004

We Survived Hurricane Charley

I had to work on Friday, but got off at 1:00PM, hurricane Charley took a turn to the east at 1:30PM and was on a direct path for us in Central Florida. When I got home, my wife had turned our walk-in closet into a hurricane shelter, and we started watching the storm on the news as it moved towards Central Florida.

The storm was upgraded to a category 3 hurricane shortly before it made landfall with sustained winds of 145 mph. It made land fall at Port Charlotte and move northeast towards the Orlando area. By the time the storm got to us it was downgraded to a category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 75 to 80 mph and wind gusts up to 110 mph. We continued to watch the news till the power went out for the last time at 10:00PM.

We went out Saturday morning to survey the damage, there are many trees and power lines down we will be without power till at least August 19th. We are using candles and flashlights at night, and have a ice cooler for our food. Most of the gas stations are running out of gas, and the stores are getting low on ice, but at least we survived hurricane Charley and are alive to talk about it. The News-Press has a special report on their web site about hurricane Charley: click here

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jon,
Glad to hear you made it out ok. I had some minor damage to my home, but my faimily is ok. I have many relatives without power staying in my home. We regained power after two days without it. I know what it's like to not have ice, gas or power. Not fun. Hang in there man.
-Eric