We had only minor weather problems, and mess, thank God.....
but something like this really makes one "think",what's REALLY important, matters, etc.......thankfully, we're o.k,
M60's and all....sadly, many, many, are not.

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.

My parents are in Naples (Just S. of Ft. Myers and Punta Gorda) and my sister's family is in Tampa. I was pretty nervous here in LA when I saw that it turned into a catagory 4 storm. I'm glad to hear that both your families are okay, guys. I know my family feels lucky to have missed this one the way that they did. Scary stuff, for sure.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2004/8/16/52110.html

Here's a great link if you want to scroll down to see some incredible video of how bad these storms are. And the aritcle and video are interesting because for some reason, there are people just like these featured here who don't seem to take hurricane warnings too seriously. Watch the video and see for yourself if you're one of the ones who tend to take them lightly. Even watching the video is stressful to me.

My Mother and Step-Father live in Cape Coral, which is due-West of Fort Myers. I was watching Charley at work on the National Weather Service radar loop. My heart sank when I saw it start traveling west towards that area. That feeling turned to terror when it went essentially from category 2 to category 4 in no time at all. I had a category 4 (Andrew-like) hurricane heading directly towards the Southern part of Cape Coral, where my Mom lives. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was on the phone with her when she found out about the track and speed shift. You could tell she was terrified. Then, less than an hour later, Charley took that sudden unbelievable detour...maybe 10 miles...North towards Punta Gorda. For those that don't know the area, Port Charlotte is maybe 10 or 15 miles north of Cape Coral. They had literally dodged a bullet. The damage to their neighborhood was substantial, but it was nothing compared to the devastation that missed them by such an extremely small distance.

It's times like that where you are humbled and awed by natures fury.