 |  Florida's Hurricane
History
by Jay Barnes
Second Edition
424 pp., 139 photos, 87 maps, 3 tables
$24.95 paperback, $39.95 hardcover
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You might say that Friday, August 13, 2004, was an unlucky day--unlucky for
Southwest Florida residents who braced for the arrival of Hurricane Charley, the strongest hurricane to strike the state since Andrew landed in 1992. It
was bad for all of Florida since Charley's appearance on that Friday the thirteenth began what would become a record-breaking year for hurricanes in the
Sunshine State. It was even a bad day on the Chinese coast, where Typhoon
Rananim, the most powerful to strike China in seven years, roared ashore,
killing hundreds. But in Florida, all attention was on Charley, the first major
hurricane to smack the state's southwestern edge in over forty years.
 Mobile home owner Al Wheeler
was surrounded bu the remains of his residence following Hurrican Charley in August 2004.
Nearly every mobile home in the Riverside Drive area of Punta Gorda was destroyed
by the hurricane. (From Direct Hit,, photo by Jonathan Fredin, courtesy of
the Charlotte Sun)
Charley formed from a fast-moving tropical wave that crossed the
Atlantic and moved southeast of the Dominican Republic on August 10. It
continued westward across the Caribbean, reaching category 2 strength
on the twelfth as it passed near Jamaica. It turned northwest and
passed over western Cuba, then emerged in the southeastern Gulf of
Mexico on the morning of the thirteenth. It passed by the Dry Tortugas
by mid-morning on a northerly course that appeared to track toward
Tampa. Sometime just after noon, a slight increase in southwesterly
winds in the upper atmosphere nudged Charley to the right, sending it
on a new course that would take it into Charlotte County. Mysteriously,
a rapid intensification occurred just prior to landfall, as the storm's
central pressure fell 0.65 inches in a matter of hours. Charley's small
but powerful core made landfall at 3:45 p.m. at Cayo Costa and then
again at Mangrove Point, just southwest of Punta Gorda. Satellite and
reconnaissance reports indicated that the eye was only five miles in
diameter at the time of landfall. By 5:30 p.m., the storm center was
five miles west of Arcadia. At 9:15 it passed over Orlando
International Airport, and before midnight Charley was passing off the
coast near Daytona Beach, still maintaining hurricane strength. After a
brief run up the Atlantic coast, Charley made landfall again near
McClellanville, South Carolina, on August 14. It landed with sustained
winds that were still hurricane force, and on the following day, it
continued to buffet the Atlantic Seaboard with tropical stormÐforce
winds and rains as far north as coastal New England.
When Charley exited western Cuba and approached Florida on August 13,
forecasts called for the hurricane to spin up the coast to Tampa. Evacuations
got under way, and almost 1.5 million people were asked to leave their homes.
Even MacDill Air Force Base, the U.S. nerve center for the war in Iraq, was
evacuated except for essential personnel. But the storm's early turn toward the
northeast took it into Port Charlotte, and once again the Tampa metro area
was spared. Many who fled Tampa traveled inland only to move into the path
of the storm near Orlando.
 Wally Galla
inspects the damage to his boat after Charley's winds and waves tossed it off it's
lift in Harbor Heights. (From Direct Hit,, photo by Jonathan Fredin, courtesy of
the Charlotte Sun)
It took just over seven hours for Charley to spin across Florida, leaving behind a long, relatively narrow wake of wind-blown wreckage. The National
Hurricane Center's official report on the storm suggests that sustained winds
at landfall may have been over 145 mph with a pressure of 27.79 inches, based
on satellite and aerial reconnaissance. The lowest barometric pressure officially measured on land was 28.47 inches recorded at the Charlotte County
Airport in Punta Gorda, where a peak gust of 112 mph was also measured before the anemometer was destroyed. Unofficial recordings from a private mo-
bile weather unit in Punta Gorda measured a low pressure of 27.86 inches and
a gust of 127 mph. All along the hurricane's path, new wind records were set
as Charley carved its way across the peninsula. Wind gusts were measured to
104 mph in Arcadia and 109 mph in Wauchula, but in many locations, no peak
readings were available because high winds damaged or destroyed wind instruments. Orlando International Airport, some 175 miles inland from Charley's landfall, recorded sustained hurricane-force winds of 79 mph and a new
record peak gust of 105 mph--a testament to the storm's enduring intensity.
Because of Charley's fast pace and relatively small size, rainfall was not a
serious threat to the affected region. Most stations reported less than 3 inches
of rain, although over 5 inches were recorded in Sanford and over 6 in Gardner. The storm-surge effect, so often a deadly force in category 4 hurricanes,
was modest along much of the southwest Florida coast. This was likely due,
again, to the relatively small diameter of the hurricane and the fact that it
had intensified so quickly that seas did not have time to build. Storm surges
ranged from six to seven feet on Sanibel and Estero Islands. Tide gauges on
the Caloosahatchee River near Fort Myers generally ran three to four feet
above normal. Tornadoes were also a threat across much of Florida during
Charley's passing. One touched down in South Daytona Beach in advance of
the storm, producing a quarter-mile-long track that destroyed one home and
heavily damaged several others. It also tore the roof off of a strip mall and
started a petroleum fire when it ripped out two pumps at a gasoline station.
One woman was injured. According to National Hurricane Center reports, at
least five other weak tornadoes likely touched down in Charley's path, but assessing their impact was difficult because of the other wind damages caused
by the hurricane.
Charley's overall impact in Florida was immediately compared to that of
Hurricane Andrew. Although Charley's winds were not as powerful as the cate-
gory 5 blasts that leveled portions of Dade County back in 1992, scenes of
devastation in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda resembled the earlier storm's
aftermath in Homestead. And like Andrew, Charley had picked a busy spot--nearly 1 million people lived within thirty miles of the hurricane's landfall.
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