I am watching the news
this morning and it's full of apologies from local news.
They are apologizing for being so over dramatic and over encouraging people to go to the shelters.
In Acadia, (still looking for an online link for this one) people went to the shelter. Lot of them.
The roof came down on top of them during the brunt of the storm. Not sure how many dead there yet.
They are estimating that about 1 million (not confirmed yet this morning) are without power.
There are mobile home parks in places like Ft. Meyers and Port Charlotte where they didn't have enough time to get out where lots of people are injured and homeless.
It was catastrophic damage in other parts of this state directly south of me.
I know many of you thought I was making light of the situation compared to what you were seeing on tv but as I said, what they were calling Sarasota was actually the cities to the south of us.
Such horrible misinformation problems yesterday.
Relatives and friends up north looking at the footage on CNN and other major news channels thought we were in severe peril and people who have relatives in the hard hit towns and cities that weren't even warned, now face the dreadful news late last night and this morning.
We here in SRQ were warned for 5 full days. That storm was coming at us and so the people to the south, the EOCs in those towns and cities, were not warned early enough.
You can't predict these things with any amount of accuracy. This is nature and nature goes and does what it wants.
The whole western seaboard should have been warned and all the cities to the east of the seaboard should have been warned.
They always so say go east, beyond I-75, and that is where it slammed.
They sent people to shelters in the east and the south of us.
There is catastrophic damage in those areas.
The news anchors here are just yapping and yapping about how sorry they are and how lucky we all are and yes, I do feel lucky but damn, why the hell weren't those cities prepared for anything at all?
I don't understand.
Comments
Hi ya, Kat. lad to hear you made it through okay. But, OMG:
The death toll from Hurricane Charley rose early Saturday, when a county official said there had a been ''significant loss of life'' at a mobile home park and deputies were standing guard over stacks of bodies because the area was inaccessible to ambulances.
Hundreds of people were missing in Charlotte and thousands were left homeless, Sallade said. He compared the devastation with 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which the National Hurricane Center directly blamed for the deaths of 26 people, most in South Florida.
''It's Andrew all over again,'' he said. ''We believe there's significant loss of life.''
Posted by: Colin | August 14, 2004 7:55 AM
I know. I'm watching it all this morning. Those people weren't warned from what we are being told. Yesterday, while they were answering questions live on tv from people in Port Charlotte and Ft. Meyers, they told people that they would be safe in their homes. That the storm was going to hit north of them and that they would feel some wind and get some rain but they should be fine in their homes.
It's a whole new tune this morning I tell ya.
I can't believe they told them they would be safe there.
Posted by: kat | August 14, 2004 8:03 AM
..KAT..as a new born to you guys world glad to see you ok hope the others are too..as one who has seen alot of destruction from these storms I too agree people take them way to lightly .This one might miss but the next wont,sad that people dont understand; nature of these things is their unpredictability.Then the so called experts on the local media make things worse..days of warning..now comes the finger pointing..sad that lose of life is the only thing that will wake people up..if the train is coming get off the track..be safe..looks like we are next..and today I`ve got to drive in it all day..:-((
Posted by: Rob..NC | August 14, 2004 8:49 AM
That is such a waste - people depend on news to warn them! Yeah, they're sorry...I know they can't 100% predict things but those people should have been at least warned and told to be prepared, just in case it came their way.
Posted by: Karen | August 14, 2004 9:49 AM
Karen, people in those areas were calling to ask if they were safe in their homes or should they leave and the EOC told the call banks to tell people in those areas that yes, they were safe and they could stay in their homes. I know we can't predict fully but damn, they should have told them to seek some sort of shelter just in case. It was a category 4 for christs sakes! It could have done anything it wanted and it did. I don't understand why more people weren't warned or told to evacuate.
Posted by: kat | August 14, 2004 10:23 AM
Stay Safe Rob. It is very sad that it's taking deaths to wake people up to what can happen if you are not prepared for anything. And just think, FLA has 10 more named storms to get through before hurricane season ends in October.
Posted by: kat | August 14, 2004 10:24 AM
I just e-mailed you about the call John Winter said he had with the National Weather Service at 8:30 a.m. yesterday. He was BRAGGING on air this morning about VIPIR radar catching the shift in Charley's track early yesterday morning, and that the NWS had noticed the same thing -- but they thought it irresponsible to report the potential shift in landfall location because it would have given the 4 million residents of Tampa Bay a false sense of security that we were now in the clear, when the hurricane might not have made that final turn. I'm sure all the residents along the South Gulf Coast that were hit are so happy that they, instead, had that false sense of security! It just makes me livid to think about it.
And we can't exhale yet with TS#5 about to become Hurricane Earl next week near Cuba and near-repeat Charley's path almost a week later...
Posted by: robyn | August 14, 2004 12:26 PM