Remembering Hurricane Charley

Five years ago today all of us who live and work on the Southwest coast of Florida started taking another look at a hurricane spinning in the Atlantic. We all knew that hurricanes didn't make landfall in this area... hadn't at least, since Donna in 1960. The weather reports the evening of Aug. 12th repeatedly were saying Tampa was the expected place of landfall. However, those of us who are of the more cautious nature decided to at least make a few preparations.


The unexpected happened and Hurricane Charley made landfall over Punta Gorda the afternoon of Aug. 13th. Those of us who experienced it first hand will always remember all of the details of that day and the days that followed.

Our office was deemed uninhabitable as a large section of the roof and most of the rest of the shingles had been torn off. I remember walking into our steaming, sweltering hot, dark office the next day and seeing water drip through the flourescent light fixtures from the ceiling. No power, no air conditioning... Uninhabitable, indeed.

Fortunately someone in our office (ironically named Charlie) did believe the hurricane was going to come here and we had covered our computers. A kind and generous friend of our company offered us a small office space (in a building in Punta Gorda that was in surprisingly great shape). We relocated there for three months while our building was renovated.

I checked the tropical weather today and there are a couple of areas the forecasters are watching for possible development. I think I'll keep a close eye on them.