NEWS: Category 4 Storm Hurricane Charley Makes Landfall, Massive Damage and Casualty Reports

What's happening in Miami, does anyone know? I have a good friend and haven't heard from her in a couple of hours. Last time I heard from her, she said they were okay for now, that it hadn't hit there.

Thanks,
Tiza

See Charley another way here:

Unisys Infrared - Loop12

(it can take a little while to load the whole sequence...)

I am in Ft. Lauderdale, and as of the time of this post it is not even raining yet.

Charley:

I'm just north of Daytona. My company has about 100 employees and we work for Builders from east of Orlando to Daytona then North to Jacksonville. This is not pretty. We were sent home (from Daytona) at 2:30. (All the installers had already been called back from Orlando and had made it in - even with the parking lot situation from the west coast evacuations.)

They are expecting 60 - 70 mph winds from sundown, then between 10PM & 2AM hurricane force, not expected to subside till after 6AM tomorrow. I have only been down here since 2001 and this is totally BAD.

A lot of the people I work with live beachside, come Monday, who knows what we'll all have lived through. The worst part is we have had an unbelieveable amount of rain prior to this and the swales are already full (before this comes through).

I am fully resigned to shelling out all our savings Monday for insurance deductibles (hurricane deductibles are 3% the value of your home). I do hope I'm wrong. The worst part is I convinced my parents to relocate down here last year. If anything happens to them I will never forgive myself.

I don't expect to be able to report back for a few days but maybe we will still get lucky - who knows. It is 5:15PM, we will be in the master bedroom closet for the night. I'm sure we haven't done half the things we should have, but in the end it just seems so futile. It's really not up to us at this point.

See ya.

Originally posted by Nerdling
***URGENT UPDATE***

MSNBC has come back from its commercials and confirmed that the storm may be turning to the north quickly. Tampa may not be out of danger yet.

WFLA is giving advice to Evacuate IMMEDIATELY. As many as 250,000 are in the danger zone now that have not yet evacuated.

Please provide a link as I can find nothing. In traditional Floridian style, people are returning to normal business in Tampa area since the storm hit south of them. All I found was an order for Polk county mobile home evacs and something about Pasco county (north of Pinellas).

Unsure right now about just whats going. This storm is really giving the trackers a run for their money.

Damage update...

Ft Myers hit very very badly, appears to be under 3 to 4ft of water. Cape Coral hospital has lost most of its roof and is moving patients... 2 other unnamed hospitals have suffered massive structural damage. Multiple fires, electric lines failing. General disaster zone.

If this is really heading for Orlando... You have by my count.. 55 minutes to get your sh*t together.

I was in Orlando earlier this week. I ended up bailing early because of this hurricane. I was worried I was over-reacting when I did it, because someone commented that it wouldn't be that bad. I asked them how many hurricanes they had been through and they said none. I admire their lack of panic, especially since they couldn't leave, I felt it wasn't worth risking so I left anyway. I'm sure glad I did it now, it looks like it will hit Orlando pretty good.

What's happening in Miami, does anyone know?

I spoke with someone in Miami about 2 hours ago. I didn't ask them about it, but they had their business open so it couldn't be that bad. It wasn't supposed to really do anything around the south-eastern tip.


[edit on 13-8-2004 by perseus]

Heres the wind pattern and velocities...



Thats one big ass storm.

Wow, thats one big arse storm there.
I hope no one gets hurt

*** URGENT UPDATE ***

Orlando citizens begin to report storm conditions.

High winds, high levels of precipitation. There are reports that it might steamroller right over the city. Evacuation orders may be given.

Will update when more comes in.

If it turns west unexpectedly it'll make a direct hit on Tampa hence the "stay alert" warnings but nobody can really be sure.

If you're in Orlando you should be listening into TV and Radio. Stay tuned for further information.

South East Florida, Miami and Broward counties are okay, just lots of cloud coverage, very windy, occassional strong gusts over 35mph, no rain as of yet, but clouds seems to be getting a little darker. but no worries we should be fine unless a tornado pops up.

I've heard that Orlando was starting to feel the storm, but I read that the bad part is going to be 10p-6a.

[edit on 13-8-2004 by perseus]

Well its a hurricane so its starting to slow as it goes landward.

I've been talking to some weather specialists and lets just say the entire east coast better pray that it does not make it into the Atlantic and Gulfstream.

[edit on 13-8-2004 by Nerdling]

Originally posted by perseus

What's happening in Miami, does anyone know?

I spoke with someone in Miami about 2 hours ago. I didn't ask them about it, but they had their business open so it couldn't be that bad. It wasn't supposed to really do anything around the south-eastern tip.

[edit on 13-8-2004 by perseus]

Thanks, Perseus. I appreciate the update.

Tiza

New Projected Path!

NBC2 Orlando has evacuated its newsroom, we dont know if the anchors have stayed in the studio as i cant check the TV. But when journalists begin to evacuate you know the crapola is hitting the fan.

www.nbc-2.com... - Dead site.

Channel NOTICE: The NBC2 Newsroom is being evacuated. All online Doppler features should continue to work in our absence, as should the live stream of our broadcast. We will return as soon as it is deemed safe to do so. Please take shelter yourself and thank you for watching NBC2 News and visiting us online

WBBH Orlando is also evacuating its building. This isn't "live" locations they're evacuating their own headquarters.

This is getting very very bad.

*** NEWSFLASH ***

A shelter in Desoto County Florida has collapsed with 1000 people inside.

Casualties are UNKNOWN...

Originally posted by Nerdling
*** NEWSFLASH ***

A shelter in Desoto County Florida has collapsed with 1000 people inside.

Casualties are UNKNOWN...

this is bad, very bad news.
i hope no one is seriously hurt or killed

Triage has been set up across the street in a school.

As Banshee said to me... Triage implies casualties

Lets hope they're all ok.