|
Charley was first recognized on August 9, 2004, as
a tropical depression east of Barbados. A fast-moving
system, it crossed the Caribbean on a west-northwest
track, reaching Jamaica on August 11. By that time,
it had become a hurricane, the second of the season.
After passing north of Grand Cayman on August 12,
Charley turned north-northwest and struck Cuba early
the next day. At that point, Charley was a Category
3 hurricane with winds of 120 mph.
Its passage over Cuba weakened the storm, and when
it entered the Gulf of Mexico Charley was down to
a Category 2. But then the first nightmare scenario
for Florida began to unfold rapidly: Charley made
a sudden turn to the northeast, and in the space of
a few hours intensified to a Category 4 hurricane.
Charley slammed into the west Florida coast near
Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte on the evening of August
13. By that time, it was packing sustained winds of
145 mph—a catastrophically powerful storm. It
cut a swath across the middle of Florida, striking
Orlando early on August 14. By that time, it had weakened
to a Category 1 storm with maximum winds of 85 mph.
Charley finally left Florida, still a hurricane, near
Daytona beach, and moved out into the Atlantic.
Charley was done with Florida, but hardly finished
as a storm. It veered north, coming ashore again in
South Carolina later that day, scouring the coast
from Cape Romain to Myrtle Beach. Once it had crossed
into North Carolina, Charley was a tropical storm,
and on August 15 Charley was absorbed into a frontal
zone moving northeastward over Virginia and into the
New England region.
Charley was blamed for 10 deaths in the U.S., nine
in Florida and one in Rhode Island, in addition to
another 16 deaths indirectly attributed to the storm.
Insured damages of $7.4 billion were blamed on the
storm, with by far the greater amount occurring in
Florida. Total losses were estimated to range from
13 to 15 billion dollars, making Charley the second
most expensive hurricane in U.S. history—after
the infamous Hurricane Andrew.
The photos to the left depict the scene around
Ventura Lakes in Punta Gorda, Florida, in the aftermath
of Hurricane Charley. The community itself, consisting
of properly installed, modern manufactured homes,
is virtually unscathed; the site-built industrial
buildings located nearby are heavily damaged. This
represents graphic proof that the popular conception
of manufactured homes as being of low quality is 180
degrees from the truth.
|
