I talked to my parents in Cape Coral and they are OK. Grandma is in a hurricane shelter. Most of the neighbors had the screens over their pools blown away. My parents lost roof tiles, some of which broke right thru the lanai screen and are now at the bottom of their pool. Dad said thank God they installed metal hurricane shutters. The boat is okay, but they had a couple trees fall down. The power has been out there since 1 PM. They are 9' above the water but it's only risen 2' (expected to rise more). All in all, they're through the worst of it...

Please stay safe all my Fodorite friends. Special good wishes to you GoTravel, LMF, TG. Scarlett, are you ok?

PLEASE! All stay safe and leave to safer places. We all here worry about you.!

I am back home now. What a day. I evacuated to Lakeland this AM and then when the storm turned into Punta Gorda soooo south of here, and began traveling up the state, then I had to evacuate back to Tampa! I know lots of folks who headed to Orlando where there are lots of hotel rooms -- and now they've got this thing bearing down on them.

This was a strange storm. By all counts it should have done more damage and had a bigger surge than it did when it landfalled. I think that little turn it made at the last minute must have somehow helped to keep the wave action minimized.

I know there's more stuff to come on this one. If anyone out there living in a trailer thinks they'll ride this one out, then think again.

Stay saf, all of you, I just heard it may swing this way! Yikes!

WHEW~ It is hard work keeping up with a Catagory 2-3-4 Hurricane!!
We have had several tornado watches throughout the day, which sort of worry me more than a hurricane. But as of a couple of hours ago, it began to rain harder, it has hardly rained today in Jacksonville.
Now it is raining and getting windy so I guess this is the way the evening will progress.
I am hoping that once it hits Daytona/open water, it will stay out to sea..I believe it has been downgraded and the winds are not expected to be over 90 here.
The pup will no doubt use this as yet another excuse to sleep at the foot of the bed, sigh, and I hope that nothing large falls on the house or through a window.
I hope all of you out there, who have started to clean up already are fine and your homes are OK, and those of you who still wait like we do, I wish you well. It will be over soon!
G'night!
Scarlett

Glad to hear that everything is fine in your area, Scarlett! Here's to hoping you, the Yankee, and Pup have a restful night.

We should start a new thread for the Floridian Fodorites to check in so that we know everyone is ok. Do you mind?

My thoughts and prayers are with you...stay safe!

I sure hope GoTravel remembered to take her Prada when she evacuated!!!!!!!!! Hang tough everyone.

I'm very happy that I'm back home and it was a dud in this area.

I'm very sad and feel for all the folks down south from us. I can't even imagine what Sanibel looks like right now.

Here in the Sarasota area, nothing, and some hurricane gods must have been smiling on us when they made Charley turn almost at the last minute. Unfortuantely somebody else had to take the hit.

Anyway, I was able to get home around 8pm tonight. At one time this morning I started to believe that I would not see my house again. As I was sitting at my friends house watching TV I started to get very depressed. Knowing that my house is about 100 yards away from the beach and although I'm about 12 feet above ground, between the wind and the surges I didn't think it stood a chance. It never came. I (thankfully) still don't know what 12-15 foot waves/surges look like, and I don't want to. These beautiful barrier islands are about 1 foot or less above sea level, so you could imagine what a 12 foot surge will do.

To all the folks south of here. I don't even know what to say.

My thoughts are with you!

Hello everyone,

This is pretty grim, but I'm afraid life is just sometimes this way. My family returned home about an hour ago after helping hand out food and water in Punta Gorda all day. After what we saw, I'm ashamed of my earlier post here worrying about whether the flowers we'd had to do before the storm would last until my niece's wedding today.

In this magnitude of a diaster the victims depend on those from outside to come to their aid. The older kids in my daughter's Key Club were asked to volunteer to help a church give out food and water today in Punta Gorda. She couldn't go because of the wedding. We took 1-75 down to the wedding in torential rain and it was staggering to see convoy after convoy of amubulances, police cars, Red Cross trucks, army vehicles etc. heading south on the short drive we took to the church.

Long story short, after the wedding we wished the couple well and our family headed down to find the group to see if we could help. My boys, being boys, were very anxious to see what the storm did. They were disappointed when it stopped short of us. I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious myself. We weren't prepared for what we encountered.

I'm not going to be dramatic and give you a blow by blow, but the farther south we went, the path of the storm became clear. Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda used to be a part of a territory I covered for 10 years during a career in my past life so I know the area well and knew exactly where the church was.

We knew it was bad by the time we got to the exit, which we found by sight because all road signs were gone. There was tremendous calm and order about the whole scene all day. Later in the day we figured out the traffic was minimal because so many residents did not have working vehicles because of storm damage.

When we got into town, I had no idea how to find this church because every building and landmark I knew were either destroyed or beyond recognition. Just before the exit, we had seen a mobile home community that was totally destroyed. There was one whole section of about 30 cement foundations with virtually nothing on them. If anyone stayed there during the storm, they could not have survived. At the exit about 300 hundred yards down the interstate, we saw parts of mobile homes that there probably part of that community.

After just a few minutes, the devistation was literally hard to look at so I can't even imagine how it must feel to be a victim. Many homes and building were still intact with only some room damage and broken windows. Anything that was either not well built or just unlucky was destroyed. Charley was headed straight toward us and turned at the literal last minute. All we could think was that this could just have easily been our community and our home.

This is a community with a large elderly population (just like the rest of FL). PC & PG attract retirees because the cost of living is very reasonable unlike many other towns along the west coast.

As we were driving down 41, there were just dozens and dozens and people sitting in groups in parking lots of destroyed stores. Many agencies were there doing the same as thing the church we were going to.

The one thing that will be indelible in our minds for the rest our lives was a very elderly couple we came across. They were standing alone in the parking lot of a small condo building that was completely destroyed. We stopped to see if they needed anything and all the dazed woman could say was that she "forgot" her keys in her condo and needed to get into the car they were standing next to but couldn't "find" her keys because she couldn't figure out which condo unit was theirs. DH found a policman (they were everywhere, from many different cities thank goodness) who came and picked them up and was going to find out if they had any family they could call. We wonder if they were in the condo when the storm hit and if so, how they could have survived. That one made a couple of us cry.

We handed out hot dogs chips and water all day. 90% of these amazing people not only holding it together, but actually cheerful. THey took pictures of their children with us and got our names and addresses so that they could send us a note when they got back to their homes, if they had homes to go back to. So many told us that we'd be happy too if we'd spent a couple hours wondering if we were going to die. Sure makes sense to me.

We talked to someone who went to check on his elderly neighbor on found him dead--probably of a heart attack he thought. They said they'd begged him to come stay at their house but he didn't want to leave his. They all wanted to talk about their experiences, because I think it's healing. It's healing for me to "talk" about it.

I have never taken FL weather lightly because I was little more than a toddler when hurricane Donna hit our community and I still remember being terrified. My Mainiac DH (not an insult--he's from Maine and that's how his family refers to themselves), anyway, my DH thought I was way over the top when I threw a temper tantrum until he at least agreed to board up our windows on the north side. He shook his head when I threw the patio furniture in the pool and when I went to Walmart at 1 am for provisions. We we saw today got his attention. I have lived here my whole lift and will probably never leave since you're supposed to retire here. I hope that at least one my kids will be close by to take care of us when we're old. This was a sobering lesson and they'll never forgot about the fury of mother nature and how we often forgot how lucky we are to have food, clothing and shelter.

My son wanted to call my dad to tell him what we had seen, but he told me that he couldn't figure out how to describe it. Please say a prayer for these people and then thank God that you are safe and don't sweat the small stuff.

God bless, Jayne.

Does anybody knows how is Key West was affected by Charlie. I have to fly to Miami and drive to Key West. Is it worh to do now or better just cancell? Thanks.

Jayne - I appreciate your sharing that. We just really don't know, do we, until we've literally been touched by devastation in some way? I've just counted my blessings.

Jayne, i'm so relieved to hear from you!!! Your post brought tears to my eyes; thank you for sharing and God bless you and your family for being so kind. (BTW, pls email me - mine have been returned!?)

Thanks Jayne...you made my eyes well! Back to 20/20!heehee. Quite soboring...and a great life moment for you and your family.

Jayne, though I saw footage on TV it did not convey the pathos of your post.
My heart feels heavy for all the victims of nature's cruel outburst.

Thanks so much for writing all that up Jayne--it put a face on the devastation. I imagine your boys no longer think of a hurricane as an exciting event? Gosh...what an experience for you all. There is someone posting on the Europe board who needs to come over here and read your report!

As to not knowing where you were, we saw something similar on the news last night...a man trying to get back to his home, and although he was in his own neighborhood, he had no idea what street he was on and was having to ask police.

Home Depot corporate called us and asked if we could house 40 of their families left homeless by the storm for a month. The corporation is paying, and DH set a rate of less than half the normal. Then he had another call from an "old age" home who asked if we could take 200 of their ambulatory residents for a month. 200 we can't...the total would be over half of the available rooms and most have been committed on all or a portion of those days, but we can take some.

The Hyatt Regency at Orlando airport sustained some damage and is full. They called last night to see if we had any bread to spare...there is none to be had in Orlando and they can't feed their guests. I doubt there's much to be had in Tampa either as shelves were bare, but we had some stored here. Then how to get it there. One of our bellmen volunteered to drive it over after he finished his shift last night and because his car is small, he was given the hotel towncar to take it over. Our chef went out to scour the stores to see if he could dig up any more. So...at midnight last night, a Lincoln towncar loaded to the roof with loaves of bread made the trip to Orlando.

The devastation is just beyond imagination and it does make you ashamed for the things you worried about. Me too...I was worried that we didn't take the bloody sails off the boat. The whole boat would have been gone and it's only a boat...not a vessel containing our lives' belongings!

Between living in New Orleans and here we've had nore than a few near misses from storms turning at the last moment, and here was yet another. Instead of becoming more jaded about future hurricanes though, and paying less heed, this only drove home the importance of never ever pooh-poohing them. Another time it could as easily be us that ends up the target and lucky souls 60 miles away are spared as we were this time.

Oh OO, how utterly terrible and yet how wonderful to hear about the hands on care people are giving. I was just posting on the other thread "Foridian Fodorites Check In" when you posted this. It must be such a joy to be able to help in such a viable, timely way. And yes, we all need to count our blessings daily; no one knows what a day will bring! BTW, how is your DD these days? Hugs to you, dearheart!

...We were able to get my grandmother out of home in Port Charlotte Friday...we had just visited her and eaten dinner on the lovely Punta Gorda waterfront a few weeks ago..I can't imagine it's all gone...It began 9pm Friday for us and I have been through storms before but no one thought it would be like this...we still do not have power at the house (central FL)....by 9:30 I was in the hallway frightened...we awoke the next morning to very few birds singing, but singing nonetheless..the air was as still as could be and it was like Christmas morning but the opposite-you don't want what you get when you wake up and run to the window...debris everywhere as the 3 oak and magnolia trees in the yard dumped large branches all over...part of the chimmney was in the backyard and the wooden fence was down...but the neighborhood came alive with the sound of saws and rakes, everyone pitching in and cleaning up....I found what I was made of during this and the people close to me...it is sad it takes such a disaster to bring the best out in people, but I am thankful even so....we went to the local store around the corner and in the parking lot saw a small tree tipped over..on the ground next to it was a baby dove that had been ejected out of his nest...he was alive and now lives with us...we had syringe fed one of our parrots since birth so we still had the supplies and knew what to do...he is getting some flight feathers and is eating and going to the bathroom....so we have hopes he'll make it...we named him Charley....