My brother lives in Ft. Myers. He has super duper storm shutters on all his windows, and his house served as the neighborhood shelter for several other families.
Everybody in his neighborhood is OK, but there's a lot of damage. He says there are trees down everywhere. About 30 to 40 trees are piled up between his house and his neighbor's. There is a tree leaning on his house, but there appears to be no damage to the house itself. A Mango tree wiped out his pool cage. Other than one or two trees that were uprooted, they were all snapped off. Now THAT'S some wind. Initially, trees wre blocking all the streets, so car travel was impossible. But, they were able to get out yesterday, so things are improving.
My brother's wife thinks a tornado went through their yard based on the fact that there is a definable path of destruction that passes through the neighborhood, including their yard.
They did NOT get hit with the storm surge they feared. The wind shift that caused Charley to turn into the Port Charlotte area instead of heading north to Tampa, prevented the storm surge from affecting them. WHEW!
They are, of course, without power, but he's received word that thye expect power to be on by Friday. He said he heard, on the radio, that there were 169,000 people in Lee county (Ft. Myers) without power, and 640,000 without power in all of southern Florida. Almost nothing was open, though it was reported that a Home Depot in Cape Coral was open, but without power. You got in line and when you got to the door, you told an employee what you need, and they, with flashlights, retrieved the supplies you needed and brought them to you. Had to be slow going.
All 3 hospitals in Port Charlotte were damaged, and patients were being evacuated. Ft. Myers, had serious damage to a number of fire stations.
In his neck of the woods, everything seems to be as good as can be expected after an event like this.
