A friend sent this photo
of a unique cloud formation in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley. I
think it is awesome and needed to be passed on.
The Hands of GOD...
8-13-04
8-11-04 - DREAM - I was in a city somewhere, standing in
a jewelry store, waiting to get waited on to buy a fit for a female
friend who was in the hospital.
They had a television on in the store with the local news. The
reporter was talking about some kind of accident that had happened high
up on a bridge. A car was dangling off the railing with a full tank of
gasoline. They were really concerned that the car might fall into a
crowded parking lot below because a crane could be brought in there to
lower the car to ground level safely.
Meanwhile, there were two other women in the store that were quite
distraught about their children who were ranging in age from about 8 to
12 because it was so hard to raise kids these days.
I knew the kids of the one woman and I assured her that her kids were
fine and I gave her a big hug.
The newscast was continuing on the TV about the danger of the car
dangling off the bridge.
I still hadn't figured out what kind of gift to get for my friend,
but then it dawned on me that she had purchased a mirrored compact there
some time ago that was worn out. It was pink with gold decorations on
it. So, I asked the clerk when my turn came, if he could duplicate the
compact.
The clerk picked up the phone to call his supplier to see if it could
be done.
While he was doing that, I turned my attention to the TV once more
and the weatherman was standing in front of a United States map. An
announcer was talking to the weatherman. It was the same one who had
been reporting on the car situation. The car situation hadn't been
handled yet either.
The weatherman started hitting himself in the forehead in terror and
saying, "The wind ... the wind .... "
The announcer looked at him and said, "How strong is the wind
going to get?" concerned that the car was going to blow off that
railing and explode into the cars below it.
The weatherman, in stark terror, said, "6,000 miles per
hour".
I looked at him in utter disbelief, yet I knew that the man was
genuinely terrorized.
Then I looked out the window of the store. A storm had come up
looking like a hurricane. I thought about running home to get my kids
and take them down into the basement where it was concrete to keep
them safe and then realized that with winds of 6,000 miles per hour,
even in a concrete building like we were in, we couldn't even save
ourselves.
I looked out the window again and saw that the wind was driving the
rain sideways already and it looked like the wind was already around 200
miles an hour.
It was too late to save anyone!
IS THIS THE REAL HURRICANE WE ARE NOT PREPARED FOR?
If Venus did indeed orbit planet Earth temporarily, its mass
would have induced a major tidal wave in the earth’s crust,
creating new mountain ranges and causing the oceans to surge over
continents, expunging most life forms. During its temporary
orbits around our planet, the close approach of the luminous
comet Venus with its writhing tail, undoubtedly struck such
terror among the global populace, that archetypal images of Venus
in its role of Lucifer the light bringer, remain until the
present era.
Thus Illuminist Albert Pike, in his tutorial for 33rd Degree
freemasons, known as 'Morals and Dogma,' states that Christianity should only be applied
in the Masonic instruction given to Masons of the lower degrees, but that the
Masonic
hierarchy worships Lucifer.
Mexican myths suggest that the comet possessed a
serpent-like tail and was adorned with appendages similar in
appearance to feathers. Such appendages are referred to by
astronomers as a comets “beard”; this cataclysmic event
probably gave rise to the legend of the plumed serpent
Quetzalcoatl. On its approach to earth, the comet’s luminous
coma apparently created the illusion of possessing two appendages
like the horns of a bull, to the terrified viewers on Earth.
Sanchuniathon, a contemporary of the Assyrian Queen Semiramis,
wrote that Astarte (another appellation of Venus) had the head of
a bull, while the oral tradition of the Samoans held that: “The
planet Venus became wild and horns grew out of her head.”
In describing the resultant cataclysm, the Mayans claimed that
oceans inundated continents, volcanoes erupted, mountains rose
and fell and a ferocious wind roared across the face of the
earth, sweeping away all forests and towns. The Mayans named this
terrible wind Hurrakan, from which the word “hurricane” is
derived.
Federal
Emergency Management Agency ... Register for Disaster Assistance by calling
1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or TTY 1-800-462-7585
for the speech and hearing impaired. STORM WATCH & CURRENT WEATHER.
...
www.fema.gov/
8-11-04
Governor declares state of emergency
Tallahassee, Florida - Governor Jeb Bush has declared a state of
emergency ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley bearing
down on Florida.
Tropical Storm Bonnie could be at hurricane strength by early tomorrow
morning, just off the Panhandle coast. Tropical Storm Charley
strengthened into a hurricane today. Forecasters say it could hit the
Florida Keys Friday, but the eye's landfall is expected between Tampa
and Naples.
The declaration of emergency allows the state to move resources around
to meet local disaster preparedness and management needs. It also
allows Bush to seek help from the federal government if required.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
CHARLEY
DEATH TOLL = 20 ACCORDING TO NEWS REPORTS
As for the media death toll, don't believe a word of what
you have heard, just as we even heard on the radio here today.Two of us went to deliver generator gas to relatives on Burnt
Store Road in Punta Gorda (where the mobile home parks used to
be that I wrote about earlier today here on RMN). We were
stopped by FEMA, National Guard, and STATE POLICE who asked me
to prove I had a reason to be there. I told them the exact name
and address of my relative down the street, showed them our gas
cans, showed them my military (retired) ID, and they eventually
let me through after checking the name and address I had given
them. There were MANY MANY body bags lined up on both sides of
the road, far more than we could count as I drove slowly through
that one block. There were search dogs and many teams going
through the rubble not far from the main road. They hadn't even
passed through 50 feet of rubble yet. But even worse was what I
was unable to see on Friday night... body PARTS that were being
collected. Our estimate is that there were at least 20-30 body
bags already on BOTH sides, waiting to be put into trucks.
I really don't care what CNN or ANY biased and controlled
media group wants to "estimate" or purportedly
"report" about this disaster. The world is NOT being
told the truth of what happened here and how many died. Why
would they want to cover up a body count or death toll that we
have already seen for ourselves? Why are we hearing JEB and his
older brother GW on the Ft. Myers radio station tell us today
that what we have seen with our own eyes didn't happen and
doesn't exist?
At least 20 dead;
experts worry toll of deaths, injuries may
rise
08/30/04
Downed
trees cause fish kill
Hurricane Charley blew
down so many trees
throughout the Peace River
Valley that rotting
vegetation is fueling a
major bacterial bloom, a
state water quality
scientist said.
The bloom has depleted
dissolved oxygen levels in
the river, and that is
causing a significant fish
kill, according to Dr. Dave
Tomasko, an environmental
section manager for the Southwest
Florida Water Management
District.
As a result, the
river, and eventually most
of Charlotte Harbor, will be
plagued with dead fish and
an odor of sewer gas for
weeks, he said.
"For the next
couple of months, it's
probably not going to be a
whole lot of fun" to be
out on Charlotte Harbor,
Tomasko said.
Natural fish kills
have occurred periodically
in the past when oxygen rich
freshwater floating on the
surface of the estuary flips
with oxygen-depleted saltier
water near the bottom.
But this kill is being
driven by another phenomena,
Tomasko said. It's caused by
the process in which
anaerobic microbes break
down organic material. The
process uses up the oxygen
in the water.
The microbes, which
work to putrefy organic
material, generate both
methane and hydrogen sulfide
gases. Methane is also
produced by the breakdown of
sewage and the odor of
hydrogen sulfide is
associated with rotten eggs.
Tomasko, who sampled
water quality in several
upriver towns after the
hurricane, also pointed out
the river is above flood
stage. Rotting vegetation is
submerged in standing water
that will be draining into
the river for some time.
With all the organic
material washing into the
creeks, "the bacteria
are going crazy," said
Tomasko.
"It's probably a
good idea for no one to go
in the water for a
while," he added.
"When the oxygen levels
are low, the bacteria that
exist in it can be a little
more dangerous."
Last week, a team of
Department of Environmental
Protection wastewater plant
regulators also toured Peace
River towns in DeSoto and
Hardee counties damaged by
the storm. Their mission was
to sample river water and
check for sewage plant
spills. They tested for
bacteria, turbidity and
dissolved oxygen.
They found that the
lack of dissolved oxygen in
the Peace River and many of
its major tributaries was
widespread and significant.
Normally, the state
considers 5 parts of oxygen
per million acceptable for
rivers and streams. But the
Peace River and most parts
of Joshua, Charlie and Horse
creeks had less than 1
percent.
For example, the Peace
River sampled at Arcadia had
only .44 parts per million
oxygen, "which means
there really isn't even
oxygen for fish to
live," said Tomasko.
"Most sport fish
can't survive on that,"
he added. "When that
water moves down into the
harbor, we think that's
going to create a
significant fish kill."
Horse Creek, normally
a near-pristine tributary of
the Peace, had only .35
parts per million oxygen --
except for its uppermost
wetlands, an area known as
the Myakka Head. There, the
oxygen level was a
near-normal 4 parts per
million.
There was little storm
damage in the Myakka Head.
The investigation
found that none of the
sewage treatment plants
upriver was illegally
discharging pollution.
That's despite the fact most
of them lost electrical
power as a result of the
storm, said Jeff Greenwell,
a DEP environmental services
section supervisor.
There was no
indication any of treatment
plant ponds overflowed,
Greenwell said. One factor
that helped avert such a
spill was the fact many of
the residents of areas
served by sewage plants had
either vacated or haven't
returned home since the
storm, so flow to the plants
was minimal, he said.
Greenwell said the
river and creeks smelled
foul even in areas where
there were no people or
sewer plants upstream.
"During our drive
around, you could smell the
river pretty strongly,"
Greenwell said. "What
we did see was lots of trees
down. It looked like the
hurricane had gone right up
the river."
There are 21
wastewater treatment plants
in DeSoto County; Hardee
County has 15.
Some of the utility
companies that had regained
electrical power last week
were offering their
generators to the ones
without, Greenwell said.
Greenwell said he is
unaware of any phosphate
slime or wastewater spill
that occurred as a result of
the storm.
Fecal coliform
bacteria, which is an
indicator of sewage
pollution, was found at very
high levels at the Port
Charlotte Beach Complex in
Port Charlotte, said Bob
Vincent, environmental
administrator for the state
health department.
Samples taken at the
complex last week had a
fecal bacteria count of
1,500 per 100 milliliters.
The state prohibits swimming
in water with more fecal
bacteria than 400. Raw
sewage has 300,000 to 1
million parts.
"There is no
question that swimming
contact with the river water
may have health
effects," Vincent said.
"Stormwater has a
tendency to cleanse the land
and carry the waste to the
river, and Florida's land is
not sewage-free."
All of the samples
along Gulf beaches tested
safe for swimming, he added.
"You go up U.S.
17 and there's nothing but
devastation all the way up
to Wauchula," he said.
"All the leaves are
blown off the trees, trees
are toppled over and all
this stuff is rotting in
standing water."
In the long term, the
fish kill may benefit
certain bottom-feeding
species, Tomasko said.
"All the fish
that are going to die are
going to sink to the bottom
and are going to get eaten
by something," he said.
The Peace River
drinking water plant stopped
withdrawing water from the
river last week. It began
pumping from its
600-million-gallon reservoir
instead, said Pat Lehman,
executive director of the
Peace River Manasota
Regional Water Supply
Authority.
The pumping was
switched due to pumps
getting back online at the
reservoir, he said. However,
by then, the quality of the
river water had also
declined.
For the water plant,
the color of the water is a
bigger problem than the lack
of oxygen.
"It's jet
black," Lehman said.
"It's got to come way
up before we can use
it."
The authority has
enough water stored in
aquifer wells and the
reservoir to last until
spring, Lehman said.
You can e-mail Greg
Martin at gmartin@sun-herald.com.By GREG MARTIN
Staff Writer
Posted on Tue,
Aug. 24, 2004
Charley exposes gaps in
state windstorm law OUR
OPINION: TOUGHER BUILDING
CODE NEEDED TO WITHSTAND
HURRICANES
One
of the many lessons to be
learned from Hurricane
Charley's assault on Florida
is that the state's
three-year-old building code
may not be tough enough. For
state lawmakers, this
possibility raises concern
that, in writing the law,
they cared more about saving
the building industry a few
dollars than protecting
their constituents' property
and lives. That's completely
unacceptable. What is needed
is a careful review of the
message embedded in
Charley's destructive wrath,
leading to a strengthening
of the codes.
Florida has no excuse not
to have the toughest
possible building codes that
protect against killer
hurricanes. It isn't a
question of whether the
storms will come, it is only
a question of when. Yet
surprisingly, amazingly, the
new codes are based on the
premise that a major storm
will affect some areas close
to the coast only once in a
century. The trouble with
that is that the very next
hurricane could be that
once-in-a-lifetime killer.
Shelters damaged
Hurricane Charley may
well be merely a prelude.
Yet early damage reports
show that while many newer
homes that were built to
code suffered little damage,
some essential facilities
such as hospitals, fire
stations and schools that
were being used as shelters
inexplicably lost their
roofs and walls. This is
intolerable. Residents who
evacuate their homes for the
safety of shelter must be
assured that these refuges
are safe. Hospitals, police
offices and fire stations
must be safe in any storm so
that their staffs can carry
out their life-saving
missions.
We can't compromise
Surely, Florida
legislators can understand
that there must be no
compromise whatsoever when
the question is whether to
spend a few more dollars on
thicker plywood, extra nails
or a better design versus
putting people's lives at
risk.
The early lessons of
Hurricane Charley speak to
this unendurable reality:
Collapsed roofs at the
Charlotte County Medical
Center, the Sheriff's Office
and the Turner Agri-Civic
Center in Arcadia, which was
being used as a hurricane
shelter, created
unacceptable risks.
After Hurricane Andrew in
1992, Miami-Dade and Broward
counties adopted the
nation's toughest windstorm
standards calling for
protection against 150 mph
winds in coastal areas. The
2001 statewide standard is
less stringent, requiring
that buildings withstand 130
mph winds in those zones.
Charley teaches that the
tougher the standard, the
safer the building.
From e-mails - people who really
live there:
At
2200 hours on 8-21-04 the
following information was conveyed
by phone to Charlotte County
Emergency Management (Joseph
Goggin--head of the Charlotte
County Health Dept)
941-505-4620--- NBC news--Sherka---239-939-6223---the
Red Cross --Mona--941-379-9300 and
an E was sent to Patrick Comer at
WINK-TV in Fort Myers--
"
Reliable anonymous sources report
the failure of the gypsum mine
slurry retention ponds in the
Bartow area resulting in the release
of massive amounts of contaminated
radioactive water into the
headwaters of the Peace River
--drinking water source for much
of Charlotte and Sarasota County
creating a potential
large
scale public health
problem"
Crossing
the Peace River bridge on numerous
occasions yesterday the smell was
enough to make a maggot gag --
the
river surface is coated with a
slime --massive fish kills have
been reported from Bartow south to
Arcadia
boiling
the water well not remove the
smell nor the radioactivity
Thank
you for your time
I really don't care what CNN
or ANY biased and controlled media
group wants to "estimate"
or purportedly "report"
about this disaster. The world is
NOT being told the truth of what
happened here and how many died. Why
would they want to cover up a body
count or death toll that we have
already seen for ourselves? Why are
we hearing JEB and his older brother
GW on the Ft. Myers radio station
tell us today that what we have seen
with our own eyes didn't happen and
doesn't exist?
as a first responder I must say
what is being suggested here is not
accurate--there may have been many
more deaths but remember the
majority of the people fled--after
wandering around in this mess over
the last week opening roads and
delivering food I saw few if any
injured people--and in conversations
with many--not once did the subject
of fatilities arise--of couse a lot
of people have not returned yet--the
devestaion in many areas was total
-- yet the people in the Burnt Store
trailer park areas were in good
spirits and optomistic--was in these
areas all day yesterday and today
--just wreakage--not fatilities or
injuries--the clean up and renewal
has been phenomenal --crews from as
far away as Texas and WV have been
working 24 -7 --also National Guard
--most of main roads already cleared
and most of power and phones now
working--convoys of food and water
trucks everywhere--there have been a
number of incidents but on the whole
everyone has handled this well --
news crews everywhere so a cover up
would be really hard--although
barrier island events were not
handled well-- compared with
Andrew I think this was handled in a
professional manner in view of the
circumstances--what happens next is
the cause of my concern for it
appears our water supplies have
beeen compromised--caused by the
dyke failures around the gypsum mine
slurry ponds which appear to have
killed everything in the Peace
River--this we reported to the
proper authorities a few hours
ago--the next week or two will be
the proof in the pudding -- will
keep you informed
Click
here: The News-Press: Local &
Statemore
info--three hospitals in Port
Charlotte lost their roofs--only one
has reopened--Sun Newspapers have
been offline since storm --Sarasota
Herald Trib not accessible on web
this am--see next link--this Fort
Myers paper--60 miles to south of
me--more follows (-:
In a message dated 8/22/04
2:26:09 PM Eastern Daylight
Time, jley@scgov.net writes:
Received
e-mail from DEP rep to Peace
River Water Supply Auth.
He had done on the ground
evaluation and overflew the area
Thrusday and reported likely
source was river bottom
sediments placed into
suspension.
Wonderful--assuming
they are right and we are not--the
Quest-ion is??????--What are we
going to do about our now
contaminated drinking water???
In a message dated 8/22/04
2:26:09 PM Eastern Daylight
Time, jley@scgov.net writes:
Received
e-mail from DEP rep to Peace
River Water Supply Auth.
He had done on the ground
evaluation and overflew the area
Thrusday and reported likely
source was river bottom
sediments placed into
suspension.
Wonderful--assuming
they are right and we are not--the
Quest-ion is??????--What are we
going to do about our now
contaminated drinking water???
COVERT
TESTING IN PUNTA GORDA BEGAN IN
57, COINCIDENCE?
One of the points of interest
in this post dealt with the
plasma which has taken over the
atmosphere.
While reading the article I
was horrified. I discovered
testing that was done using
weaponized Pathogenic Mycoplasma
in Punta Gorda! Moreover the
HIDDEN EXCUSE FOR THE OUTBREAK
OF DELIVERY - MOSQUITOES WAS
BLAMED ON A FOREST FIRE! Does
this sound like deja vu?
For those that are unaware as
to what weaponized mycoplasma
are, here are a few examples:
strains of neuro/systemic
degenerative diseases that are
mutated bacterium combined with
a visna virus, from which the
mycoplasma is extracted to
created AIDS, chronic fatigue
syndrome, Alzheimer's, Crohn's
colitis multiple sclerosis and
Parkinson's disease. Now
remember, these are diseases
that our government is loading
onto mosquitoes to deliver to
us, the unsuspecting public as
human guinea pigs.
I hope and pray that this is
not being done in Punta Gorda or
anywhere in Florida today. Like
many I do not believe in
coincidences. How many people in
Punta Gorda knew that this
experimentation actually took
place in 57? And this was only
when they were officially
caught!
Testing via Mosquito Vector
in Punta Gorda, Florida
A report from The New England
Journal of Medicine reveals that
one of the first outbreaks of
chronic fatigue syndrome was in
Punta Gorda, Florida, back in
1957. It was a strange
coincidence that a week before
these people came down with
chronic fatigue syndrome, there
was a huge influx of
mosquitoes.
The National Institutes of
Health claimed that the
mosquitoes came from a forest
fire 30 miles away. The truth is
that those mosquitoes were
infected in Canada by Dr
Guilford B. Reed at Queen's
University. They were bred in
Belleville, Ontario, and taken
down to Punta Gorda and released
there.
Within a week, the first five
cases ever of chronic fatigue
syndrome were reported to the
local clinic in Punta Gorda. The
cases kept coming until finally
450 people were ill with the
disease.
Testing via Mosquito Vector
in Ontario
The Government of Canada had
established the Dominion
Parasite Laboratory in
Belleville, Ontario, where it
raised 100 million mosquitoes a
month. These were shipped to
Queen's University and certain
other facilities to be infected
with this crystalline disease
agent. The mosquitoes were then
let
loose in certain communities in
the middle of the night, so that
the researchers could determine
how many people would become ill
with chronic fatigue syndrome or
fibromyalgia, which was the
first disease to show.
Quotation taken from an
article published by Donald W.
Scott, MA, MSc, extracted from
Nexus Magazine, Volume 8, Number
5 (August-September 2001)
Urgent Message:
"If you have any relatives or
friends living in Florida, please
make contact with them
immediately. Do not, and I repeat,
DO NOT rely on what the American
news media is broadcasting about
the catastrophic devastation left
in the wake of Hurricane Charley.
Although I do not know the exact
numbers of those who perished,
they are enormously higher than
what the American news media is
broadcasting.
The number of injured survivors is
overwhelming.
Survivors who are trapped in the
massive devastation need ALL your
help and the help must be given
NOW! Do not hesitate to drop what
you are doing, and regardless of
how far or distant you have to
travel, get to them IMMEDIATELY!
Survivors urgently need to be
taken OUT of the devastation and
they only do this with the help of
those who care about them.
What the American news media is
not telling you is that the 'eye'
of Hurricane Charley was loaded
with fierce, huge, deadly
tornadoes as it barreled up
through central Florida. There is
a 'second' hurricane building in
strength named Hurricane Earl,
which is predicted to take the
same path as Hurricane Charley.
Hurricane Earl is expected to be
an immediate threat to the state
of Florida by this coming Thursday
or Friday."
-k.t. Frankovich
Mario Tama / Getty Images
Sheri Lafferty, center, is
seen with family
members waiting for handouts
of humanitarian aid, in Punta
Gorda, Florida, on Tuesday.
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 11:52 a.m. ET Aug. 18, 2004
PUNTA GORDA,
Fla. - Until the electricity hums again
and the debris is cleared, health
officials are worried that there could be
more deaths and injuries in the aftermath
of Hurricane Charley than during the storm
itself.
“We’re
seeing lacerations, injuries
post-hurricane,” said Karen Mulvaney, a
critical care nurse. “A lot of people
are coming here now because people are now
returning to their homes.”
In addition to
injuries sustained during repairs to
damaged property, residents are being
sickened by eating rotting food and
contaminated water. They are skipping
their prescription drugs and, with no air
conditioning and with window screens blown
away, exposing themselves to mosquitoes
carrying diseases such as West Nile virus.
“It really
gets back to getting electricity as soon
as possible because that’s going to
solve a lot of problems,” said Tommy
Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services. “Right now
there are a lot of heart attacks in people
who are going out and cleaning out their
property.”
Still smarting
over the loss of their homes, Charley’s
victims turned out by the hundreds in
90-degree heat Tuesday to cope with the
storm’s latest blow to their lives —
the mass shutdown of businesses that has
left them without jobs.
“Charley
laid me off,” said Rose Vito, a
57-year-old telemarketing assistant in
red-plaid pajamas, who lined up outside
the Employ Florida mobile benefits station
in Port Charlotte’s Harold Avenue
Recreational Center parking lot. “Without
phones and computers, they can’t
function.”
None of the
choices on the unemployment form —
suspension, temporary layoff,
discharge/performance — seemed to fit
her situation. So in the space that
demanded a “reason for separation,”
she wrote: “Hurricane Charlie.”
For thousands
of Floridians, Tuesday was a day when
services cut off by the rampage of Charley’s
145-mph winds last week were being
gradually — and sporadically —
restored. Federal disaster assistance
money began flowing, state officials
cracked down on price gouging and postal
workers handed out mail.
Death
toll inches higher Meantime, the death toll rose
from 19 to 20. An 86-year-old man who had
evacuated his home fell and died while he
was in a motel.
Officials in Charlotte County said
three new deaths may have been linked to
the aftermath of Charley. The three people
died Monday night in a crash at an
intersection where the traffic lights were
not working.
Before lashing
Florida on Friday, Charley killed four
people in Cuba and one in Jamaica.
As bill
delivery began Tuesday, many storm victims
— most without power, water or phone
service — worried about what Charley and
its aftermath would do to their savings.
In Punta Gorda,
one of the hardest-hit areas, Federal
Emergency Management Agency director Mike
Brown said $2 million had been issued to
victims and more was on the way. More than
23,500 applications for aid had already
been received.
Health and
Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge
toured the damaged areas in a helicopter.
Thompson announced more than $11 million
in help, with the majority of the money
going to support early childhood education
centers.
Amid
progress, desperation persists Hundreds of thousands of
Floridians still had no telephones, no
water, no diapers and no gasoline, leaving
them short-tempered and vulnerable to
crooks.
State Attorney
General Charlie Crist filed price gouging
and unfair trade practices complaints
Tuesday against two motels, accusing them
of jacking up room rates. One advertised
$39.99 on a billboard but asked for $109
and $119 a room, Crist said.
“It is
unthinkable that anyone would try to take
advantage of neighbors at a time like
this,” Crist said. More than 100 state
investigators were in the field, and most
of the initial complaints were about
lodging rates.
Law
enforcement officials in DeSoto County
said Monday that six people had been
arrested in Arcadia on burglary charges
for alleged looting. Sgt. Jim Troiano, a
spokesman for the sheriff’s department,
said some homeowners had posted signs
warning looters to stay away.
Post
office ‘back in business’ There were small signs of progress
Tuesday.
At 7:45 a.m.,
the U.S. flag was raised at the heavily
damaged main Post Office in Punta Gorda as
60 employees said the Pledge of
Allegiance, cheered and applauded. Then,
they went to work for the first time since
Charley struck Friday.
“We’re
back in business,” Postmaster Doug Burns
declared.
The building’s
front windows and sliding glass doors were
blown out, sections of the roof were
missing, and insulation from a nearby
business was plastered across rental
mailboxes. Since people could not get to
the boxes, Postal Service employees handed
out mail in a drive-through operation.
Elsewhere in
Punta Gorda, municipal employees went to
work Tuesday putting stop signs and street
signs back up.
“Most of
them are bent, so we dig them out,
straighten them up and dig them back in
again,” worker Trevor Day said.
About 493,000
people remained without power Tuesday,
state officials said, holding to
predictions it could take weeks to fully
restore electricity. At least 100,000 were
without local phone service.
“I haven’t
had a hot meal in days, but I’m doing
all right,” said Norma Chapman, 82, who
drove to a half-demolished strip mall in
Punta Gorda to pick up six bags of ice
Tuesday. She was still without any
electricity or running water.
Twenty-five of
Florida’s 67 counties were designated
federal disaster areas. Officials estimate
Charley caused as much as $11 billion in
damage to insured homes alone.
Charley also
swiped at agriculture, including the $9.1
billion citrus industry. Florida Citrus
Mutual, representing 11,000 members, has
said 280,000 of the 800,000 acres planted
for citrus crops in the state were
hammered.
“We don’t
have any hard numbers yet, but certainly
we’re expecting damage in the hundreds
of millions of dollars,” Terry McElroy,
a spokesman for Florida Agriculture and
Consumer Services, said of overall crop
damage.
The Associated Press and Reuters
contributed to this report.
Hurricane
Charley's sharp turn baffles
scientists
15:48 16 August 04
NewScientist.com
news service
A last-minute swerve to the
right by Hurricane Charley which
devastated the coastal Florida town
of Punta Gorda over the weekend, has
baffled experts.
The 258 km/hour hurricane that
flattened the US town on Friday
afternoon, killing at least 20
people and injuring many others, was
predicted to hit land 70 miles
further north, but changed direction
within minutes of the coast.
“There was a sudden
intensification and a veering to the
right of track, and we’re all
trying to work out why,” said Mark
Saunders, a tropical storm expert
from Benfield Hazard Centre at
University College London, UK.
Climatologists use a range of
physical parameters, including sea
surface-temperature, wind speed and
direction to predict the path and
force of hurricanes up to five days
in advance of land strike, but with
so many factors involved hurricanes
remain fairly unpredictable.
“Seasonal forecasts, based
on the temperature of the sea and
the strength of the east/west trade
winds between Africa and the
Caribbean – which give the amount
of vorticity [stirring-up] – can
tell scientists whether hurricane
activity will be greater or lower
than average. This season is above
average, with eight hurricanes
predicted to strike the US in total,”
Saunders told New Scientist.
And further devastation may
come from hurricane Earl – the
fourth of the eight. “We expect
Earl to strike Central America, just
north of Belize City, on Thursday
morning, from where it should travel
in a weakened state across the
Yucatan peninsula to the Gulf of
Mexico,” says Saunders.
Global
warming
“Depending on the sea
temperature and the wind speeds, it
is then expected to gather force
before hitting the US,” he warns.
Charley was classified as a
Category 4 hurricane, the worst to
hit the States since hurricane
Andrew, which also hit Florida in
1992. Despite its power, Charley was
small in diameter – less than 160
kilometres across – although it
reached at least 3000 metres from
the ground to the top of the
troposphere.
However, despite this season’s
rise, the trend has been for a drop
in hurricanes over the last century,
Saunders says, who believes there is
no evidence to link global warming
to hurricane trends. ”The average
is 1.6 per year, but there have only
been three to hit the US over the
last four years.”
The hurricane season is June
to November, peaking in August to
October. Most hurricanes form over
tropical waters of at least 27°C,
between the west coast of Africa and
the Caribbean, in the Caribbean Sea
or in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hundreds of Thousands Lack Electricity;
Phone, Water Outages Also Widespread
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, AP
PUNTA GORDA, Fla.
(Aug. 17) -- About 790,000 people remained
without power in Florida in the aftermath of
Hurricane Charley, and officials estimated
it could take weeks to get electricity fully
restored. At least 150,000 were without
local phone service. Homeland Security
Secretary Tom Ridge was to study the damage
in the Ft. Myers area Tuesday.
Some 2,300 people
stayed in shelters, and Federal Emergency
Management Agency director Michael Brown
said 11,000 have already applied for
disaster aid. Federal officials received
20,000 catastrophic housing requests -
10,000 on Monday alone.
But amid the
misery, there were small signs of progress
back toward normality Tuesday.
At 7:45 a.m., the
U.S. flag was raised at the main Post Office
in Punta Gorda as 60 employees said the
Pledge of Allegiance, cheered and applauded.
Then, they went to work for the first time
since Charley struck on Friday.
''We're back in
business,'' declared Postmaster Doug Burns.
Elsewhere in Punta
Gorda, municipal employees Norm Broussard
and Trevor Day went to work putting back up
stop signs and street signs. The city is
concerned the lack of signs could contribute
to traffic accidents, Broussard said.
''Most of them are
bent so we dig them out, straighten them up
and dig them back in again,'' Day said.
Others, Broussard said, ''we're going to
have to replace.''
Punta Gorda and
Port Charlotte were among the hardest-hit
areas Friday, and 25 of Florida's 67
counties were designated federal disaster
areas. Officials estimate Charley caused as
much as $11 billion in damage to insured
homes alone.
Early Tuesday,
state emergency management spokeswoman
Tameeka Forbes said the death toll had been
raised from 18 to 19, but no further details
on the new reported death were immediately
released. Earlier, Charley killed four
people in Cuba and one in Jamaica.
No phone. No
running water. No ice to fight the heat. No
diapers for the baby and no gas to fill the
tank. For thousands who've lost their homes
and creature comforts to Hurricane Charley,
this is reality.
''The hard part is
not being able to bathe and not having food
and water unless I go out and look for it,''
said Tami Wilson, 48, while waiting in line
at a ''comfort station'' for ice and water
while her blind husband, Dewaine, waited
alone at home.
''I just want
something to eat,'' house cleaner Willie Mae
Robinson said as she waited for canned goods
and ice with several dozen others at an old
train depot in Bowling Green, where
temperatures soared into the high 80s. ''I
have something for today but I don't have
anything for tomorrow.''
''After you live
through it, you can't imagine how desperate
you get,'' said Barbara Winslow, who was
waiting in line for diapers, food, water and
ice at National Guard comfort station. ''You
don't have anything. If the end of the world
came tomorrow, this is what it would look
like.''
Brown said it
could take several weeks to find all the
victims, and officials still had no count
Monday of how many people remained
unaccounted for, a mission complicated by
toppled power lines, spotty phone
communication and roads littered with
debris. However, early estimates of hundreds
of people missing are probably inflated.
In Fort Myers,
trucks carted away palm fronds and the
twisted remnants of metal gutters. Near the
city's beach, bulldozers plowed down streets
covered with an inch-thick layer of sand
that looked like snow.
In other areas,
overturned RVs were the only thing that
remained in some parking lots. People
returned to what was left of their homes to
find what looked more like a junkyard.
Gasoline was
precious, with lines of 40 cars at some
stations. Lines also snaked through parking
lots at food distribution sites. Bottles of
water and bags of ice took on vital
importance.
Frustrations began
to emerge on a typically muggy day as people
complained about the lack of power and
access to their neighborhoods. Tempers
flared at a bridge crossing to Fort Myers
Beach when officers used a stun gun to
subdue a man in a minivan who wanted to
enter the area still closed to residents,
WINK-TV said.
Law enforcement
officials in DeSoto County said Monday six
people had been arrested in Arcadia on
burglary charges for alleged looting. County
spokesman Sgt. Jim Troiano said some
homeowners had posted signs warning looters
to stay away.
Nearly 4,400
National Guard troops have been activated
and nearly 2,000 insurance adjusters were
handling claims. The American Red Cross
established eight mobile kitchens and five
feeding centers capable of serving 9,000
meals a day.
The owners of a
convenience store in Port Charlotte opened
without power, despite damage to the
building. Owner Imran Siddiqi was using his
cell phone calculator to tally purchases for
a steady stream of customers.
Jeff Fields, 42,
of Port Charlotte, was smiling as he picked
up a six-pack of beer and four packs of
cigarettes.
''It helps with
the cleanup,'' he said.
08-17-04 09:15 EDT
Copyright
2004 The Associated Press.
Florida Assesses Damage in Wake of
Deadly Storm
By SHAILA K. DEWAN August 16, 2004
HAINES CITY, Fla., Aug. 15 - Two
days after Hurricane Charley tore across
the state, the death toll was inching up,
but far slower than officials had feared
and tens of thousands of people who were
left homeless by one of the worst storms
ever to hit Florida were pondering their
next step.
Close to a million people were still
without power, many were without water,
too, and utility officials said it could
be up to three weeks before service to
some could be restored. Around the state,
people emerged from their battered homes
in search of the basics: gasoline,
automated teller machines, cigarettes.
In Haines City, a Howard Johnson
hotel that had been crammed with people
fleeing the hurricane was nearly empty and
without power, and the few remaining
guests used water from the debris-filled
swimming pool to flush their toilets.
Those among the lucky packed up and
went to relatives' houses, but more than
2,000 people were still in shelters.
"We don't have a place to go,"
said Del Jenkins, 23, who was staying at
the DeSoto Middle School in Arcadia.
"The family we've got here had their
home tore up, too.''
President Bush made a brief visit to
Florida on Sunday morning to survey the
storm destruction by helicopter. He also
took a walking tour of Punta Gorda, one of
the hardest hit coastal towns. In response
to questions by reporters, Mr. Bush
defended the speed at which federal aid
was flowing into the state, saying that
the Federal Emergency Management Agency
was on the ground by Saturday morning.
"What I'm telling you is that
there's a lot of help moving into this
part of the world - it's going to take a
while to rebuild it," he said.
"But the government's job is to help
people help rebuild their lives, and
that's what's happening."
Throughout the day, truckloads of
food, ice, water and other necessities
poured into Lakeland, where the Florida
National Guard set up a staging area,
dispatching supplies almost as quickly as
they arrived.
"In talking with many of the
experts, they believe we're 10 to 14 days
ahead of where we were in 1992," said
Col. Jeff Hetherington, speaking of the
year Hurricane Andrew hit.
By 3 p.m., 41 trucks of water, 36
generators and 97,000 ready-to-eat
military meals were on their way to
distribution sites, according to the
Florida State Emergency Response Team.
Trying to smooth over complaints
that inland areas like Haines City and
Arcadia were receiving short shrift, Gov.
Jeb Bush visited disaster areas away from
the coast Sunday, listening to frustrated
residents who believed they were not
getting as much aid as needed or as
quickly.
"We're here to help, and we're
serious about it," Governor Bush said
at a news conference in Arcadia. "It
isn't just going to happen on the coast of
Florida, it's going to happen in the
heartland as well."
Governor Bush also went to Wauchula,
where residents worked all day dismantling
the trees that had crashed down all over
the city, piling them in 10-foot-high
piles at the curbs. City workers worked to
fix a broken water main that was
preventing water from refilling its
storage tower.
The governor did not get as far
inland as Haines City, which is in Polk
County, the area that so far has suffered
the highest death toll in the storm. The
authorities have confirmed five deaths in
Polk County from Hurricane Charley. On
Sunday, the death toll in Florida was
raised to 16 from 13.
As the search continued for other
possible fatalities, some officials
worried aloud about possible post-storm
casualties because of accidents with chain
saws or people falling off roofs during
the cleanup.
Despite the pounding that Polk
County took, on Sunday a Walgreen's
drugstore had opened in Haines City,
powering cash registers and a few lights
with generators. The store was out of
batteries, and running out of food, the
clerks said. They could not take debit
cards, because the lines were down.
Gwendolyn Fisher, 45, said she had been
going from store to store in search of
bread, canned food and formula for her
infant grandchild.
