Well, the storm has passed … and while it did leave a wake of devastation it ended up tracking to the south through Port Charlotte. This meant that we only got a glance off the north-west side of the storm. We got rain, several strong gusts of wind though nothing sustained, and were on a tornado watch most of the afternoon.
This all kept us fairly glued to the TV all day … but as it veered to the south it was actually rather disappointing. We put work into prep-ing the place and were actually looking forward to some heavy rain and strong winds. We had plans to head outside and enjoy some of the storm as it passed … view some of natures forces first hand. But it was not to be. What we did not want was a category 4 hurricane – but that is what came ashore. Winds of up to 233 km/h (145 mph) were clocked as Charley heading into Charlotte county.
Tomorrow we might head onto the barrier islands or up to Arcadia to see the damage. I am hoping to ‘bring home’ the damage such a storm will bring – will help with the preparation next time, though I must say that western Florida has not experienced something like this in 60+ years … so it might be a while.
Note: there is a new storm brewing in the Atlantic and is expected to reach cat 1 by Wednesday … and it is following exact path of Charley into the Gulf of Mexico. The thing is Charley required a low pressure front coming from the west to push it around onto the west of Florida – and this it not currently expected. But we will have to keep our eyes out.
We want to thanks all our friends and family for their concern, John and gang were watching from Seattle while we have been receiving calls from family back at home. We want to let everyone know that we are safe and secure.
But here is a little of our day:
We tried to protect the car … not from falling branches … but from flying particles
Here it comes … radar tracking
We all curled up in the dining room. away from windows and watched the front come closer
Gusts of wind and rain came … and went
Charley passed to the south packing winds of 230 km/h
We did have one victim … wind from us putting the house back left destruction
But we eventually got everything back the way it was – if not better organized and clean. At least we know more for next time … better safe than sorry
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Glad you all made it through safely. If you go out looking at damage, take a few pictures. It’s been a little difficult finding pics of the aftermath.