I doubt the accuracy of the story. As many people know who have friends or relatives in those parts of Floriday, easily 70% of the residents simply are not home. The term "Snow Birds" defines the residents who have winter homes in Floriday, and live somewhere north during the summer months. So... at best, 1 in 3 homes were occupied... and something like 95% evacuated... so I highly doubt there would be a massive death toll.

Maby to show to the world that nothing can destroy america and that
they are prepared for everything....?!?!?!

Doubtful. As we clearly saw with Hurricane Andrew, noone is impervious to a hurricane like that. Entire towns were flattened. Homestead (where the eye hit) was in a word, "gone". I've heard varying numbers myself from the typical media who just have to be first with something. It's best to wait and see. I have a friend who lives (maybe now, it's "lived") in Englewood, just 8 miles west of Punta Gorda, on the water on Baby Boca Pass. I have yet to connect with him, but I can tell you that nearly every structure on the water down there is not snowbirds in trailers. Those are a little more inland.

[EDIT]: I'm talking about Englewood more than Punta Gorda with regards to no trailers on the water.

[edit on 8/16/2004 by titian]

All I have to say is, that the news coverage here is constant...A LOT of aerial shots esspecially of Punta Gorda Mobile Home park....not one shot did I ever see body bags lined up the streets....and you could make out good detail...some news station somewhere would have shown them if they were here...I agree with SkepticOverlord, most are snowbirds

i don't think anyone lied, there is always lots of "rumors" after hurricanes, especially when there isn't much public communication. While i believe the death count will still rise, i don't think the numbers are going to be dramatic, hopefully less than 10 more.

Florida is pretty well prepared for hurricanes too.

There are plenty of shelters and due to the fact that most residents have been through this type of thing before, they're pretty well up on what to do to stay alive.

It should also be noted that Hurricane Andrew which hit Florida in 1992 was also a Category Four and that the death toll then was 26.

Andrew also caused damage of $25 billion, whereas Charley is estimated to be in the region of half of that amount.

[edit on 16-8-2004 by Leveller]

Just a thought but could this be a result of screwing around with HAARP? IF this was an experiment gone awry, then could the government be trying to cover their butts via controlled media? Again this is just a thought.

This is another prime example of the "ATS ignorance disorder (ATSID)"

You take a conspiracy website - one of many many false credibilities, and then take a credible news source, and say the conspiracy source is correct, and the news source is lying .


Ah..deny ignorance, eh? This sort of thing happens way to often, people on ATS assume that because something is better than they had hoped for - Oh Em Gee! Its a conspiracy!

[/endsarcasm]

Jeez..

-wD

I live here in the Tampa bay area where the hurricane was forcast to supposedly hit, and I work at a Wal-Mart supercenter. My assistant manager had to go down to a punta gorda wal-mart to help them clean up, says the place was pretty bad shape but not completely destroyed. He did mention many people losing their homes and whatnot but didn't say anything aobut lots of dead people everywhere. Besides I would have heard something from 5 different people by now if it was true. One co-worker told me that a tornado from the storm destroyed a moblie home park and 80 people were killed. I did not hear anything about that on any news, but if it is true (which I doubt) it would most likely not have been covered in the news as hurricane coverage because of some technacality maybe? All I know is that Im lucky it didnt hit here or I would have lost my roof and shed.

I see no reason for cover ups here. The most important thing now is to help the living in the region get their lives back to somewhat normal. The total death count will come in the following weeks as the hundreds reported missed become accounted for. If someone lives up north, they will be removed off the list of missing. Others who really are missing may have been swept out to sea. I doubt the credibility of someone (could be a tabloid reporter for all I know) stating they saw lots of body bags and they had no camera to document one thing that they reported. I mean cameras are a dime a dozen and even disposable. A reporter who doesn't take a camera to report on a big story is like a tabloid reporter saying something like Chinese mother gives birth to two-headed alien baby. Chinese doctors amazed at the telekinetic ability of the alien infant as baby toys fly through the air. Just show some pics and I might start believing these stories.

I don't rule out the possibility that lots of people died in Florida. Some of those old folks are stubborn and might have refused to leave figuring they would rather die than lose their home and everything.

That is unusual for CNN to only report 16 deaths. Chances are you misheard, they must have said so far 16 identified deaths have occured. They are still surveying the damage. Floridians are also embracing for Earl, which is building up in Mexico. As if Bonnie and Charlie weren't enough. Should be interesting how Earl unfolds.

I've heard on national news of "hundreds still missing". Perhaps those missing are turning up dead now.

Anyway, odd to make a conspiracy out of something like this. I suppose if indeed the death count would be covered up, its just to lessen the continuing negative news coming out of the United States these days.

I wasn't really trying to create a conspiracy over this, I thought maybe some southerners could confirm something that would steer towards who was reall correct. Sorry, didn't mean to shake the beehive.

You didn't do anything wrong godservant. I've just screwed up traffic this morning is all. Been sending duplicate posters here, when there was already another one opened earlier. Might as well leave this open then.

Sometimes organization just gets counterproductive.

Perhaps it's being mis quoted having something to do with money? Aid maybe? I dunno....

Well, living near the area, I've spoken to numerous friends and family. None have reported such body bags. However, there are of course, search and rescue teams scouring the debris of numerous trailer parks (as these are mostly toast) for survivors, and yes even corpses. The dogs are out, etc. It's possible they may have laid out some empty body bags and maybe that's what was seen, but I've heard nothing to indicate the number is incorrect. Of course, it's likely to climb though, as more area is searched. It's a HUGE area of devastation to comb through. I'm just glad it missed us completely, and that they were wrong. They had it going right for us (Tampa Bay). Had that happened, deaths would be in the dozens, and the damage even more horrific. (more heavily populated).

For the most part though, people took this one VERY seriously. They heeded the evacuations, and hunkered down. I was never more prepared for any other storm in my life, than Charlie. Especially becoming responsible for the safety of another family...(friends who had evacuated). I think that's the reason for the relatively low death toll, just as it was with Andrew.