For us, the winter of
2001 was long, cold and dreary.We were living in
Ashland<
span style="font-family: 'Bell MT'">,
Massachusetts, a modest, blue collar town
located about 25 miles west of
Boston<
/st1:city>.Snow
had fallen so often that the tops of the snow banks
were no longer reachable with a
shovelful.We were
at wit's end and we wanted out.My wife, Anne, spent over 10 years living
in
California before a chance meeting with me
while vacationing back in
Natick,
Massachusetts, the hometown we unknowingly
shared until our early
20’s.After a 9 month long-distance courtship,
she decided to move back to
New
England and
pursue an impending marriage, eventually taking place
in June of 1998.While in
California, she acquired a great love and
appreciation for the outdoors.On a typical day, after work, she would
head out to nearby hiking trails and spend hours
trekking along the mountainous
terrain.It was no
secret that she was longing for those warm weather
strolls that were at her fingertips pretty much year
‘round.She, as I did, just cringed at the thought
of spending another seemingly endless
New
England
winter.Once summer
ended, it was not unusual to have to wait until the
following June to don a tee-shirt once
again.New
England is an
absolutely beautiful place, but its summers are just
way too short and seemed to get shorter and shorter
each
year. Anne would give birth to our son,
Eric, in April, 2001.We then toughed it out for another year,
making it through the tragedy of 9/11 along the
way.Due to the
declining health of Anne's mother, we were drawn to
where she had been living - southwest
Florida<
;/st1:state>.We
made several trips to that area throughout 2001,
visiting in the Fall, Winter and
Spring.Seeing how
warm and sunny it was each time we went, we came to the
conclusion that
Florida<
;/st1:state> was for us.Our biggest concern however, was moving to
an area known for hurricanes.But then again, only one significant
hurricane had made a lasting impact on
us.That was
Hurricane Andrew, and it seemed so long ago and quite a
rarity as we soon found out.We also remembered it being on the east
coast of
Florida<
;/st1:state>, 3 hours from where we were planning to
move to.To our
delight we also learned that southwest
Florida<
;/st1:state> hadn't had a significant hurricane in
nearly 30 years and that the potential for another
major storm was pretty low.Wanting to get to our warmer climate
destination as soon as possible, we latched on to this
"30-year" false sense of security and
finally made the move to Punta Gorda in October of
2002. Punta Gorda is a quaint little
seaside town located just north of
Fort
Myers&l
t;span style="font-family: 'Bell MT'">
and just south of
Sarasota&l
t;/st1:city>.It’s far enough away from these
cities to quiet things down a bit, but within an
hour’s drive if we ever get the urge to
visit.Our home is
just minutes from the entrance of I-75, which is really
convenient.We can
get to either
Fort
Myers&l
t;span style="font-family: 'Bell MT'">
or
Sarasota&l
t;/st1:city> airport within 45 minutes, and just 10
minutes from Route 41, which has all the amenities one
could ask for.More
than doubling the square footage of our home in
Massachusetts, our new
Florida<
;/st1:state> home was a spacious 2400sf, including a
20’x20’ 2-car
garage.We managed
to get a great deal on this lakefront home with 3
bedrooms and 3 baths.What a huge step up from our old 1100sf
house with only the one bath and tiny
bedrooms.We quickly
fenced in the backyard once we discovered one of 5
alligators cruising on by one
day.They like small
animals when it comes time to eat, and we had a little
Lhasa Apso dog that would surely make a nice breakfast
treat.It turns out
that the largest one in there was 11 feet long and went
by the neighborhood nickname of “Big
Daddy”.Coexisting with alligators took a little
getting used to, being that the typical wild animals we
would encounter back home were skunks, raccoons, and an
occasional opossum.Before the fence went up I would have to
take Dusty out at night, just before bed, so she could
do her thing.I
can’t begin to describe the fear of walking
out there with a flashlight in one hand and leash in
the other, scouting for an 11 foot killer that could be
hiding in the darkness, planning to ambush us at any
moment.This was a
bit unnerving to say the least, and it went on for a
few months before the fence finally went
in. We had our own heated in-ground
swimming pool, so we could swim night and day, year
'round.There was a
10’x20’ lanai under roof that
shared the floor with the pool
deck.The pool was
completely enclosed by a screened aluminum cage,
attached the roof above the
lanai.This allowed
you to sit outside at night, without having to deal
with mosquitoes or other insects.The bedrooms were good sized, with a big
living room and kitchen.We finally had enough room in our home to
move around in.The
yard was nicely landscaped with half a dozen palm
trees, an orange tree, a grapefruit tree, and a
beautiful 9’ hibiscus tree positioned between
the center of the pool cage and the
lake.It always
seemed to be in bloom too.The trees were all so beautiful and were a
constant reminder of Florida<
;/st1:state> living whenever looking out a window or
venturing
outside.
Our first two years in Punta Gorda
felt as though we were on this extended vacation, even
though working every day.The weather was just great - hot summers,
but no winter.The
daytime highs might not reach 60 degrees 5 or 6 times
in a year, and we noticed right away that people seemed
happier.It was only
a matter of months before we found ourselves taking
things slow and easy.We were driving slower, and not rushing
from place to place for no good
reason.Our stress
levels had dropped significantly.It was so noticeable
too!No more warming
the up the car or chipping ice off the
windshield.No more
jumper cables on a freezing cold night, and best of
all, no more shoveling snow.We arrived in paradise and nothing was
going to change our world!So we
thought….. &
;nbsp; (end
chapter
1)
This "extended vacation" would
come to a crashing halt for us on
August
13th, 2004.For
days we watched the news, our first experience in
following a tropical storm turned hurricane as it
turned north towards
Florida<
;/st1:state>.Forecasters said it was going to make a
direct hit on
Tampa."Those poor souls" we
thought to ourselves.How odd to think that a storm like that
could ever strike a major city, let alone
Tampa.A
Category 1, then soon churning into a Cat 2, Hurricane
Charley as it was named, slowly made its way up along
the coast of southwest
Florida<
;/st1:state>.Instilling a sense of concern more than
fear into the longtime residents, the focus was only on
the
Tampa area and how they would handle such a
storm.The thoughts
of such a tragic event for
Tampa kept running through our
minds.We couldn't
imagine going through such a
thing.We hoped and
prayed that the damage to that city would be minimal,
especially as we watched and listened to each
newscaster and weatherman constantly casting its
speculations at us as each minute went
by. Our 15 year old home
was located in
<
span style="font-family: 'Bell
MT'">Charlotte
County's Deep Creek community, a fairly
young subdivision made up of modest 2000+sf ranch-style
homes near the mouth of the
Peace
River, which
flows into the heart of
<
span style="font-family: 'Bell
MT'">Charlotte
Harbor.It was such a desirable area, just a short
drive to some of the country's most beautiful
beaches.Needing a
few improvements, we decided earlier in the year to
replace the old crank-out windows and wait until the
following year to replace the
roof.The roof had
run its course, but it only had one minor leak that I
thought would be okay for another year or
so.The window
salesman recommended that we have storm shutters
installed while they were replacing the
windows.He
explained how cost efficient it would be to do it now,
since the installers were already there and so
forth.It would cost
an additional $1,000 though, so we had to think about
it for bit.We both
kept saying "But there hasn't been a
hurricane here in over 40 years.Are we wasting our
money?So many
people around here don't have them and
they’ve lived here for
decades."Well, we went for it, just to be
safe.It would soon
prove to be the best $1,000 we’d ever
spent.We would
never have thought that we'd be putting them up just a
few months later, as the first hurricane in 30 years
approached southwest
Florida<
;/st1:state>.&
lt;span style="font-family: 'Bell
MT'"> As Hurricane Charley
worked its way further north, passing the
Naples<
/st1:city> area, things started to get a bit scary
knowing that this thing had to at least graze us on the
way by.Local
weathermen said we could expect winds gusting upwards
of 60 to 70mph and a lot of rain.So, we started putting the shutters up,
just in case these high winds started throwing things
around the neighborhood.Then the hurricane watches and then
warnings started hitting the
airways.It was
quite unnerving to hear this and to see people
preparing like they were.Not everyone was preparing, but a lot
were.Most took it
lightly and saw no need to panic.Looking back now, I don't know of one
person that evacuated, mainly because this thing was
aimed at
Tampa and they were certain of its
destination.We had
lived through a slight brushing from Hurricane Gloria
in
Massachusetts back in the 80's, and remembered
how exciting it was.I remember having a Hurricane Gloria
party, riding out the high winds and laughing about it
over a few beers and hotdogs.Some tree limbs were knocked down and
power had gone out in a few neighborhoods, but nothing
to really get excited about.Perhaps this would be the same type of
experience, taking on a party atmosphere and then
it'll be gone before we know it.We couldn't have been further from the
truth.
At about noontime on this
Friday the 13th, as Hurricane Charley moved north past
Naples<
/st1:city> on the radar, it decided to make a
highly uncharacteristic turn to the
east.Its
coordinates suddenly revealed a direct path into
<
span style="font-family: 'Bell
MT'">CharlotteHarbor.It was then going to follow the waters of
the Peace
River right
into Deep Creek, then hitting the old town of
Arcadia<
;/st1:city>.A
hurricane is usually at its fiercest as it initially
makes landfall, then gradually loses its intensity as
it moves across land.But
Arcadia<
;/st1:city> was “old
Florida<
;/st1:state>” and the poorly built,
unprotected homes and buildings would not fare well
against even a Category 2
hurricane.The
storm’s new path taken was not the last of
the bad news though.Twenty-two minutes later Charley had gone
from a Cat-2 to a Cat-4 hurricane, ending the idea of
any party.
A Cat-4 hurricane equates
to incomprehensible destruction of most anything in its
path.The word
surreal can’t possibly capture the feeling
that came over us at that moment.We were completely green at this type of
thing and had no idea what to
expect.All we knew
was that we had to get moving with the rest of the
shutters and that we better get the house ready for
Mother Nature's wrath, because Deep Creek was first on
her search and destroy list.Fortunately for us our home was built with
concrete block exterior walls and stood a better chance
of survival than the stick houses
did.Perhaps we too
stood an excellent chance of survival, or did
we?Many homes would
not fair well at all, especially the mobile homes and
the older “saltbox”
homes.
We scrambled to make any
and all possible provisions, expecting the
worst.We filled the
2 bathtubs with water, which everyone does in case the
water infrastructure fails or it is intentionally shut
off.At least the
tub water would give you some water for this and that,
even if to just wash your hands.There is always that small sense of panic
when you lose water pressure in your house or
neighborhood, but it quickly goes away when you learn
of a pipe break or something similar down the
street.You kind of
know right away that the problem will be brief and
things will be back to normal quick
enough.But when
your water stops flowing due to a major catastrophe you
look at things a lot differently, and filling up the
bathtub is suddenly taken quite
seriously.More quick
thinking had us pushing all the movable furniture to
the center of each room, packing little odds and ends
underneath tables and chairs, and covered it all with
thick plastic.The
immovable things were draped in plastic, stapling the
plastic to the walls.We also loaded plastic trash bags with
irreplaceable items that might get wet from
flooding.
Both cars were brought
into the garage, rolling each so that they slightly
pressed against the garage door, in case it was to be
blown in.Lastly, we
had only gotten storm shutters for the
windows.Our
double-doors in the front entry and our 3 sets of
sliders leading out to the rear lanai were
uncovered.At this
point, time would not permit us to drive 20 minutes to
and fro to get plywood (if any was left) and then
construct wooden storm barriers.We had to improvise and improvise
now.You’d
be amazed at how inventive you can be when faced with a
crisis like this.I
attribute my quick thinking to observing my dad
perpetual creativeness while growing
up.He was the
master of improvisation, the original
McIver.He taught me
how to think quick on my feet and it was sure paying
off now.Unaware of
the capabilities of the impending high winds, we
gathered our heaviest moveable objects and jammed them
in front of each door.We placed a 300 pound treadmill in front
of the front entry's steel double-doors and used
loaded file cabinets to hold the sliders in the
kitchen, master bedroom and living room in
place.Fortunately
these items were able to be placed mostly on carpeting
to help keep them in
place. During all this
chaotic preparation process an incredible
"calm before the storm" feeling was
going on all around us.Everything was eerily still and silent
outside.It was warm
and sunny with a super slight breeze blowing, but
little activity among the wildlife, which was really
odd.Once we had
everything as secured as possible, we got a call from
my Aunt Joan and Uncle Joe over in
Hollywood&
lt;/st1:city>, on
Florida<
;/st1:state>’s east
coast.They
suggested we head over there and ride this storm out
from afar.As it got
closer the winds started picking up and that calm
setting was now a thing of the
past.Winds were now
gusting at about 50 mph.It made perfect sense to get out while we
could, since we knew now that this thing was definitely
headed right for us.So we started packing a few suitcases and
got ready for the 3 hour trek south down I-75, then
east across Alligator Alley to
Hollywood&
lt;/st1:city>.&
lt;span style="font-family: 'Bell
MT'"> Then more bad news
came our way as we were literally finished loading up
the car.ABC News
announced that several tornados were spotted meandering
their way along Alligator Alley and that anyone in that
area was to avoid that route at all
cost.So much for
escaping to the east coast.Plan B was to head north or west 50 miles
or so just avoid the impact of the
storm.Then the
newsman makes another disturbing
announcement."Batten down the hatches
people!All bridges
are now closed! Stay
in your home! Go to the safest, innermost room, away
from windows and cover yourself with a
mattress.CharlotteCounty, you are about to get a direct
hit and you can expect major catastrophic
destruction."I'm sorry, but this is not something you
hear every day, so accepting it was not easy.
Then, one more
announcement drove it home as much as it could be
driven…. “This is what
we’ve been telling you about for
years.If you have
not been paying attention, there’s not much
we can do for you.Remember, fire and rescue services will
not be available during the
storm.”This was all completely mind-blowing, to
say the least.
We had
been paying attention, but it didn’t seem to
matter, because no one thought we’d be facing
this storm, as it was predicted to just graze us on its
way north.So, we
knew that if we made it through this ordeal
we’d better make it through without any life
threatening injuries.Easier said than done, from what I
hear.The
newscaster, even though many miles south of us, was
obviously emotionally distraught knowing his
neighboring county was about to be
obliterated.Most
newscasters had never encountered a storm of this
magnitude and you could see the incredible concern on
their faces.The
scene in the newsroom was of somber, as though
announcing the death of a president, and the storm
hadn’t even completely reached us
yet.
The most surreal feeling
came over us at this point.We both went into a brief moment of shock
and utter disbelief.Unavoidable thoughts ran through our
minds."What have we
done?”We
were crazy to move here!How did we let this
happen?"The thing is, this was
really happening and it was happening to us,
now.And we had to
get ourselves together and deal with
it.It was important
that we didn’t show our fear to Eric, so we
tightened our lips and geared up for the ride of our
lives, thinking only in the now and not about the what
ifs. (end chapter
2)
It was
time to plan our escape within the house and the most
obvious option for our "hunkering
down" was our master bedroom
closet.So I emptied
it like a madman, tossing things out and visualizing
how we were all going to fit in there for however long
this would take.I
was also thinking about how we would get out if the
roof caved in on us, so I grabbed an ax and crow bar
for digging us out.It was the centermost "safe
room", away from windows, protected by
bi-folding doors and it had enough room for all of us,
including little Dusty, who had to have been totally
confused at this point, as she shook
nonstop.We grabbed
our bicycle helmets and a 2'x6' lounger mattress -
just small enough to fit perfectly over our heads as
our protective ceiling.Once the wind reached about 85 to 90mph,
we’d seen enough.I said “Okay, everyone in the
closet.Let’s
go!”So,
still in complete disbelief that this was actually
happening to us, we climbed into our
hideout.&l
t;o:p> We left the TV on loudly just
outside the closet so we could get the play-by-play
from channel 5 as this story
unfolded.We also
had a battery powered radio ready to go for when the TV
went out.The TV and
radio idea proved to add insult to injury in regards to
our fear of the unknown.Not only were we scared to death crammed
inside this closet, but we had this news guy outside
our door continually scaring the life out of us with
his minute-by-minute account of everything Charley was
destroying in his path.And Charley had just gotten
started!He
mentions that even central
Florida<
;/st1:state> was feeling the power of this storm,
with minor damage here and there.He would describe how roofs were flying
off buildings miles and miles south of us and how trees
and power lines were down
everywhere.Then we
here “You can expect a storm surge of up to
15 feet along
<
span style="font-family: 'Bell
MT'">Charlotte
Harbor.”
Storm surge occurs when a
hurricane is traveling over the ocean and the powerful
suction of the rotating motion draws the water upwards
to the point that the water just has to return to its
original level position.On its way back to level, its starting
point is 15 feet high and is being thrust back down by
the force of the storm.We lived less than a half mile from the
harbor.I would
occasionally poke my head out of the closet, glancing
through the slider into the back
yard.I saw our
20'x30' aluminum pool cage putting up a fierce fight
with the high winds, but knowing it would lose that
battle any moment as it swayed and bowed
out.I saw trees
bending in ways they weren't supposed
to.I saw things
flying by at such high rates of speed that I just knew
we were in trouble, deep trouble.
We had been warned that
first the storm would hit us extremely hard, then there
would be a short lull as the eye passes directly
overhead, and then an equally as devastating backlash
of the storm, but in the opposite
direction.This is
how the uprooting of trees and destruction of homes
really takes place.Because the hurricane is rotating, the
wind initially comes swirling from east to west, which
is the top or north side of the
hurricane.Then as
it passes to the north, the south end of the hurricane
hits, giving you the west to east
wind.So, whatever
didn't blow over with the initial pass, it was surely
loosened and would be unable to withstand attack number
two.Most trees
didn't stand a chance, even the
oaks. (end chapter
3)
I peeked out the sliders for the last time and saw
trees being shaken and tossed around like rag
dolls.Even the
mightiest of oak trees were being picked out of the
ground like tulips.Across the water I saw the same scene, but
on a much larger scale, as I could see a span of about
250 yards worth of neighbor
property.It was an
absolutely amazing sight.Around 3
o’clock the
storm hit full bore, with winds gusting beyond
belief.We were
hearing sounds we'd never heard
before.The howling
and whistling was unbearable!At that moment it occurred to us just how
lucky we were to have spent that extra $1,000 on those
storm shutters.Hmmm, what an ingenious
decision.A mixed
bag of debris was bouncing and pinging off those
aluminum shutters, with sounds of glass breaking next
door.Even at a time
like this, we couldn’t help but think how our
neighbors were doing, especially next
door.
In the final minutes of
preparation, it was kind of everyone for themselves,
assuming that we all had our own plan, so we
hadn’t even thought of how these people next
door were going to ride this out.We had no room for them in our little
closet anyway, so we could only hope that they were in
a safe place.Their
windows were obviously blown in, from the sounds of all
that breaking glass.I remember thinking “Their home
must be like a wind tunnel right
now”.Then
we thought of neighbors Richard and Linda across the
street, remembering how Richard worked so diligently at
putting plywood up as good as
possible.I've
always said that this experience was the closet that
one could feel to being in a firefight during a war,
except that you had no weapon or defense against the
aggressor.You want
to talk about feeling small?We were beyond insignificant, like sitting
ducks at a
carnival.&
lt;o:p> Then Charley attacked
the roof.The screeching and stretching above us
sounded like someone was up there pulling rusty old
nails out of a 2-by-4.We felt like William Shatner did in that
Twilight Zone episode, when he looks out at the wing of
the airplane and sees the monster tearing the engine
apart and he can't do anything to stop
it.That's how
small and helpless we felt.The debris hitting the roof sounded like
an army of 200 pound men were playing football up
there.Anne moved
away from the walls because of the intense vibrations
she was feeling.This went on for an hour or more I'm
guessing, but seemed like an
eternity.Now
switched over to a battery operated radio, the news
gave us another bit of encouraging news - winds were
reported to be reaching upwards of 150mph as it entered
<
span style="font-family: 'Bell
MT'">Charlotte
County.I found myself literally begging (out
loud) the roof to hold on just a little
longer.
That was the moment when
Anne and I realized that this was even more serious
than we originally thought.We were really hoping that this was about
over, but little did we know that the eye of the storm
hadn't even reached us yet.There was no way
out!For the first
time in our lives, we had absolutely no control over
what was happening to us.At that point I remember saying to Anne
"Is this it?Is this really how we're gonna
go?Are you kidding
me?This is
ridiculous!"It was an amazing moment for both of us,
frozen in time.Eric, who was just 3 1/2 at the
time, never stopped babbling the whole
time.To preoccupy
himself he would repeat our every word and with like
emotion.“Oh no, the big
trees!Oh my
gosh!Oh
man!My
word!”Then, one he thought of on his
own.“Um
gonna call Nana & everything’s gonna
be
better.” &
nbsp; He was never scared, just
playing with his toy train on the floor, and trying his
best to annoy the dog.
Dusty was so scared that
she nearly shook right our of her skin, but did her
best to lay still between us all.I kept a video camera running inside the
dark closet with us, just for the heck of
it.When we play it
back you can hear the fear in our voices, but never in
Eric’s.That day, he discovered that he was
capable of blocking out adversity, and still does this
to this day.As the
storm grew louder and more violent, the master bath
skylight shattered and then blew
out.Water starting
pouring down into the bathroom, just 10 feet from
us.Needless to say
the skylight shattering scared the living crap out of
us.What a sound it
made, being sucked up to the sky.It was at this point that felt we were
facing our final destination.We just knew that we were
not going to survive this storm and
we’d all be killed
momentarily.
For the next few minutes
we said our prayers together, hugged each other
tightly, and said our good-byes.It was the saddest moment we’d
ever experienced.Then, as we lived longer and longer than
expected, other
thoughts took over.These thoughts were mostly of what we
would miss and never live to see.Not so much about regrets, being far too
consumed with disbelief.Our first thought was we would never see
Eric grow up, ride a bike, go to school, graduate,
marry, etc.Secondly, would anyone ever know what our
last moments of life were like?Like everyone seems to do in the movies, I
thought of my mom and dad and how worried they must be
right now, as they followed the storm on CNN and the
Weather Channel from their home in
Tennessee&
lt;/st1:state>.I was thinking of how disappointed they
would be in me for doing this to my family, when in
reality I know they wouldn’t think that at
all.
Even though we were so
sad, we couldn't muster up a tear because of how
scared we were.If
there's one thing we learned during this experience,
fear will win out over sadness.If I had to choose between a hurricane and
a tornado at that moment, I think I would have chosen
tornado, because at least a tornado comes and goes
within minutes or even seconds.Waiting out the destruction of a hurricane
was more trying than I could ever have
imagined.We were
now begging for this storm to get over
with.I remember
shouting out ”Come on, either kill us or move
on already!”We were being emotionally tortured by a
Hurricane named Charley.We had agreed that we were ready to meet
our maker and was just hoping it would be quick and
painless. Then, it got even a
little worse, if you could imagine it being
possible.Insulation
and dust started coming down all around
us.With water
pouring into the bathroom just feet away, I figured we
were doomed soon, but I figured “What do we
have to lose at this
point?”I
lifted the mattress off me for a second and looked up
to see what we were in for."What a dummy!" I yelled
out.I had totally
forgotten that there was a 2'x2' scuttle hole in this
closet ceiling, and right above our
heads.I knew the
cover would be sucked out of the opening soon, so it
was time to make a move, if we had any chance at all
that we were going to
survive. &nb
sp; (end chapter
4)
I
poked my head out the closet door, and to my amazement
the drywall was still mostly in place to my right,
which was also the only way out.To the left the tunnel skylight was gone
and drywall was soaked, with water pouring
down.With the winds
still screaming outside, I crawled out and headed
toward the bedroom door, keeping low as if bullets were
flying overhead.I
knew to keep low and away from
glass.And
because the sliders were uncovered they stood a good
chance of blowing in and tearing me to
shreds.As I worked
my way toward the door I saw an incredible scene
outside - the aluminum pool cage was being twisted into
a pile of scrap metal.Trees were being bent sideways and not
given the chance to stand up because of the 150mph
sustained high winds.Everything you could imagine was screaming
across the backyard, as if in a scene from The Wizard
of Oz.I was waiting
for the infamous cow to go flying by, but it never
happened.How on
earth was our house still standing at this
point?I had to
keep moving though, knowing that time was of the
essence.I reached
to open the bedroom door and it wouldn't
budge.
We had closed all the
doors in the house as a precaution against
wind.I had to stand
up to get it opened and it wasn't
easy.The air
compression inside the house at this point was
indescribable.It
took everything I had to get that door opened and then
everything I had to stop it from slamming shut and
coming off its hinges once I passed through
it.It was like
being in a horror film whose ending hadn't been
decided yet and I was trying to have us as the family
that lives in the end.
&nbs
p;As I made it into the biggest room in
the house, a combination of foyer, formal living room
and dining room, I see the steel double-doors fighting
that 300 pound treadmill to my right and the sliders
battling our heavy file cabinets to the
left.It was almost
as if the sliders and steel doors were taking deep
breaths, bending more and more as each second went
by.
Water was coming in
through each light fixture and every air conditioning
vent.The sliders
continued to bow in towards me.These things were about to give and I'm
not sure why they hadn't yet.The file cabinets were holding the center
frames, but the glass itself was actually concave to 2
inches or so.An
illusion it was not.It was time to get the heck out of the
way.So I headed
toward the laundry room, the second best choice for a
safe
haven.<
/font>The laundry room had one doorway
leading into a hallway near the kitchen and at the
other end was a doorway leading into the
garage.Both doors
opened into the laundry room.With both shoulders I managed to force the
door open to see the condition of the laundry
room.Keeping the
door open with my foot, I saw that the laundry room was
still intact, except for some water dripping down from
the florescent light, and the power had gone out by
this point.I went
back to grab the family and herded them into the
laundry room, keeping low and hustling into
place.
Our ears were popping and
our faces still maintaining the look of complete fear
and disbelief.We
huddled once again, helmets on and lounger mattress
over our head.There
was a little more room in there, bringing very little
comfort though.Then
more of the roof came off above us and water started
pouring down through the attic.No disrespect to our veterans, but it felt
like were in a submarine that had just been hit by a
torpedo.We were
getting soaked from all angles and the sounds coming
from above were just frightening.I couldn’t help but think this
move to the laundry room was a mistake, but we were
here and we had to live with the
decision.Besides,
who knows what that closet looked like at this
point?We were so
emotional drained now and we just wanted this to
end.Let it be known
that one cannot pray hard enough in a situation like
this.If you have no
religion before an experience like this, you will
surely have one when it ends.We were totally "prayed
out" by the time Charley had left his
mark.And then all
of a sudden it was over!
The sounds of the howling
wind soon became distant and the tearing apart of the
house had completely subsided.Like a pack of angry wolves, it had gotten
what it came for and left.We were certain that more was to come
though, because of the relentless force that had been
battering us for what seemed to be an
eternity.And after
all, we had already conceded some time earlier, said
our good-byes and were basically just waiting to
die. (end
chapter
5)
I’m thinking “We made
it!”But
did we?It felt like
the dream was continuing on.“Did this whole thing really
happen?Did we
survive or was this our
imagination?”We were so emotionally drained at this
point that we were just plain
numb.The emotional
rollercoaster of a lifetime.We felt like Meer cats coming out of the
ground after a forest fire.We opened the laundry room door and
proceeded to walk through the house, assessing the
damage.All doors
opened and closed without a
problem.No more air
compression could be felt.No more ears
popping.It rained
throughout the entire ordeal, so water was still coming
in pretty good.Ceilings, walls and floors were soaked in
every room.But
except for the three skylights being blown out, we were
happy that we couldn't see daylight through the
roof.How was this
possible, with all that noise we
heard?We expected
to see all the plywood gone, the house held its
own.Fortunately,
only the shingles were stripped.
Our quick thinking
and preparation had saved the
day.The storm
shutters had blocked Charley from blasting its way into
the house and ruining everything in its
path.The heavy
items held up well against the doors and
sliders.The bowing
slider’s glass panes I saw proved that the
file cabinets (heavy weights) indeed did the job we had
hoped they would.Covering everything in heavy plastic paid
off as well.One
roll of 6 mil polyethylene I found in the garage had
saved the day.When
all was said and done, we lost but one
loveseat.All our
belongings were saved, including 3 computers and 3
TV's.All cabinets
and flooring were pretty damaged by water, but at least
our clothes and stuff were
salvaged.After a
stroll through the house we went out the front door to
see what things looked like
outside.At this
very moment nearly every neighbor did the same thing we
were, leading up to the defining moment of this entire
traumatic experience.It was also the most profound moment as
far as I'm concerned.To reference yet another piece of
Hollywood (CA), the next few minutes were taken
straight out of the classic movie "Dawn of the
Dead".There was almost total silence now, with a
slight balmy breeze in the air.
Looking back, if
these next few minutes could have been caught on video,
America would have witnessed exactly what it looks like
to emerge from a hurricane alive.The stoic look on every person's face was
incredible.Not one
neighbor had ever seen the other's face looking this
way before.It was
profound because we all did the same thing at the same
time.We all looked
across the street at each other's house and saw the
destruction to it and everything around
it.Then we
collectively had the exact same thought, "My
God, what does my house look
like!".The
amount of destruction was completely overwhelming and
could not be taken in all at
once.It had to be
digested a little at a time.That lost and disoriented feeling could
only be compared to coming out of anesthesia or
learning of the death of a loved
one.Someone had
just injected our emotion glands with Novocain, causing
complete and utter numbness.The next thought was "What do we
do now?This will
take forever to fix!"
There were metal
barns dismantled miles away and strewn in strips across
our lawns and wrapped around the few trees that were
left standing.There
were piles and piles of roof shingles, insulation,
mailboxes, and downed trees
everywhere.The
trees took it hard, beautiful palms laying on the
ground, dead from sheer
exhaustion.These
were just a few quick observations made in the first
moments of getting our lives
back.&
lt;span style="font-family: 'Bell
MT'">Then the silence was
broken.Several of
us called out "Is everyone
OK?"We all
called back "Yeah, we're okay, how 'bout
you?".Then, once again collectively, we all
called out "Frank and Leona, are they
okay?"Frank and Leona were an elderly couple
living right next door to us and they hadn't made it
outside yet.We
rushed through all the debris, clearing the way into
their front door.They had left it unlocked, so we went in
and found the two of them sitting hand in hand on their
living room couch.They did not have storm shutters of any
kind and rode out the entire storm right there,
together on the sofa.God must have had an eye on them, because
their home was barely damaged, which was impossible
when you looked around the
neighborhood.
The house on the other
side of Frank and Leona faired really well because it
was brand new and completely up to
code.Don and
Loraine, the neighbors on the other side of us, decided
to only cover the front and rear windows with shutters
because he was certain that the storm
wouldn’t amount to
much.If he had only
covered those side windows his home would have been
spared.All of the
side windows blew in and water damage was
everywhere.That was
the glass breaking we heard during the storm, as I had
imagined.This is
what I mean by a storm catching you by
surprise.No one
believed that we were actually gonna get
hit.And I mean no
one!It had been too
long since its last brush with a hurricane and
<
span style="font-family: 'Bell
MT'">Charlotte
County had become very
complacent.A hard
lesson learned by longtime residents, as well as
residents new to the
area. (end
chapter 6).........
Chapters 7+ will be posted soon. I hope
you've enjoyed the story so far. Future
chapters will include our experiences in the aftermath
of Charlie, from cleanup to rebuilding to seeing a
complete transformation of Charlotte County, which had
its high points and its low points.
Photos accompanying this story can be seen
under "My Photos" at
