It's been 6 years now, so some of the details are probably not precise time-wise, but this is how I remember it.

Experiencing Hurricane Charley

"It's gonna be a big one!" The guy in a heavy coat said to his friend. "It might even take out the lighthouse."
"Nah." The friend stubbornly argued. "That'll never happen"

And the dialog from the T.V. drifted on as I absently watched. Hurricane Charley was heading in and I was puffing up a little bravado by playing "Storm of the century" on DVD. Charley was figured to be just a category 2 storm and was predicted to hit Tampa, so why would I be concerned? After all we haven't had a hurricane in Port Charlotte in 42 years. We did have a nice tropical storm, Isabelle, the year before, so we had our "hit" already. this one will pass us just like the rest.

My wife and I weren't totally clueless though. We had boarded up all the windows with plywood and reinforced the garage door by propping 2x4s against the metal "Ls" of the door at one end and then bracing the other end with the wife's car and 40 pound bags of cement for the others.

We had food, water, candles, flashlights, a radio, and cushions in the bathroom, just in case. The only thing I really wished is that my truck was able to fit in the garage as well. But it wasn't. We had put in a wood shelf unit on the back wall to hold our tools and my two week old, new to me truck was now parked outside, vulnerable to the weather.

"Sigh."

At least we parked it parallel to the garage door so that it could act as a wind break to any wind bowing towards the garage door.

It didn't matter, though. 'Cause like I said, it's not gonna hit us.

Feeling a little anxious (Standing around in a darkened, "fortified" building, waiting for something bad to happen will do that to you.) I turned on the news. A couple of stations decided to team up and combine their talents and equipment to give the viewers better information. I liked that idea.

The first piece of bad news was that "Charley" had upgraded to Cat 3 in strength. (That was the strongest storm size the shelters in Charlotte county could handle.) The second was that it had turned as was now looking to hit Naples. The cameras were displaying the usual hurricane scenes. Rain pelting the windows. Wind blowing around lawn furniture, signs, and other objects not tied down. I called my wife in to watch. I remember the view that a camera gave of two palms in some garden square. The wind was blowing them like to drumsticks. They drummed faster and faster as the wind increased. I was mesmerized by the fact that the wind could oscillate these two palm trees that had been planted together.

The storm had also been upped to a category four! That was amazing! In less than a hour it went from 96 miles per hour to 131 wind wise! Now the storm had our attention.

Then the newsman stated that the storm had turned as was going out into the gulf.

"Ok." I thought, "Maybe it'll go North and hit Tampa like it's projected to. That little black line seems to be pointing that way."

Fifteen minutes later the reporter looked into the camera and said, "Hurricane Charlie is now being reported with sustained winds of 145 miles per hour and is headed into Charlotte Harbor! Those in Charlotte county should seek shelter inside their homes immediately! Do not try to evacuate! You do not have time! This is the nightmare scenario!"

And then we lost the channel and the only thing on T.V. was static.

At that point my wife and I decided it was time to get into our "safe room".

So you know, there is no such thing as a safe room inside a wood framed house when you're in the middle of a hurricane. Our house also doesn't have a hallway either so that idea was out. Given the layout of the place, we ended up choosing the guest bathrrom as our safe room. There are no windows in it and while there is no real hallway, the way to it is a sort of funnel point from the dining room. Winds would be coming from the back of the house, so that would help, too.

So with three cats, and two dogs, we all piled into the tiny room.

Lights were out, so we had the battery powered lantern on and listened to the radio to hear what was happeneing.

The wind was getting louder and louder. It does not sound like a train at all when a hurricane comes. It's deep blows with high pitched whistles mixed in that seem to go on a lifetime.

The adrealin was pumping and everyone there felt the stress of the moment. The cats were scared and one was howling to get out! We were all scared.

Then a loud crash sounded! It came from the back of the house. It had the sound of breaking glass with it. Had some piece of debris come through the plywood and window? I put my hand down to the gap at the bottom of the door and the fllor. Wind blew in freely.

It felt like someone had set a large fan just behind the door and turned it to high.

""We've been breached!" I yelled to my wife as felt the wind from uinder the bathroom door.

"No we haven't!" She argued.

"Yes we have!" I yelled back. "I can feel the wind blowing through the door!" I stood up to check out the house.

"No!" My wife cried. "Stay here! It's too dangerous to go out there."

"I gotta check!" I answered as I opened the door. Just then one of the cat's darted out of the room and ran off towars the garage.

"Stop the cat!" Mywife yelled, too late.

"I can't get her." I called back.

She got up and went towards the door. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"I've got to get the cat back." She explained.

"No." I argued. "You'll never find her. She's in the garage."

"I have to try." She said.

Shaking my head, I let her by.

She came back a few worrisome minutes later. No cat was with her.

"I couldn't find her." she said sadly. "There are no broken windows though."

"The cat will be fine." I said trying to get my wife back into the safe room. "It's you I'm worried about."

The wind was so strong and loud at that point we couldn't hear the radio playing. I turned it off and sat with my wife inside the bathtub looking at her as we held couch cusions on our heads to shield us if the roof tore off.

we looked at eachother for the next two hours and we prayed.

Then it was calm. It had to be the eye of the storm, but it didn't seem to last long. Maybe a few minutes tops. Definitely not longer that 10 minutes. Then the horrible sounds came back with the winds and we waited and prayed again until the wind finally stopped howling and everything went still.

We waited roughly a half hour in the bathroom/saferoom after the storm had passed, just to "make sure". We were that rattled. Finally we got up and checked everything out.

The ceiling was still intact. There were no signs of water damage up there. The boards on all the windows were still up. The garage door hadn't buckled or caved, all the doors were fine. Everything held. There were no breaches. That means that the pressure and wind against the door came through the cracks and gaps from the windows and doors and not from any hole. Imagine how strong that wind would've felt if there had been a breach. I was amazed at the pressure the plywood and doors must've dealt with in that storm. And we were on the "weak side" of it!

We had been smart enough to switch the main breaker off in the breaker box and all the other breakers as well just before the storm hit. (Right after we lost the T.V. channel) We went outdside to check for damage on the outside and saw how lucky we truely were.

The truck was fine! There wasn't a scratch on it! I would've bet money that something would've happened to it. It's a hell of a thing to do to a two week old truck, but when it doesn't fit in the garage, it makes for a great wind break to protect the garage door. (I still want to slap a hurricane symbol sticker on it's side as a medal for what it went through.) A few shingles we gone on the roof and the lead "boots" were bent over. All the screens in the lanai (screened porch) were blown in and the light in the back yard had blown over. (It was a large mercury vapor "street" light. That's what made the loud crashing sound during the hurricane.) Three of the pine trees in the back had large branches broken off but none of those branches made it further than 2/3rds of the way towards the house.

I attribute our lack of damamge to the location of our house. On both sides there are 5 lots that have never been cleared so Brazillian pepper plants grow wild and acted as thick wind breaks. I'm sure they absorbed a lot of the winds that went through the other, "more developed" parts of the street.

My wife got her cell phone to check on the kids and other family members only to see that there was no service. (evidently the storm took out AT&T's cell towers) The house phone didn't work either, naturally, but I really didn't expect it too because its the type that plugs in. We pulled out the old style analog phone and bingo! We had a phone. For some reason, the storm knocked down power lines, but missed the phone line to our area. We were able to call family up and see if they were ok and to tell others we were fine.

I checked the water next. The water ran, but it was slow and I didn't trust it. Then it stopped.

"Great." I thought. "How am I going to flush the toilet when needed. (we have a septic system.) Then I looked out and laughed at myself. "Idiot! You have a canal in your back yard! You can use your 5 gallon bucket and get all the water you need!" I also figured that I could dig a hole near the canal and let the water leach through to it, using the dirt and sand as a partial filter before boiling it in a pot so it was drinkable.

We went around a little to check out our street and saw that a large pine tree had fallen down and was blocking the whole street. There was no-one around, so I went back and got the chainsaw. (A nice 18" Husqvarna) With the experience of many tree removals, My wife and I made short work of the tree and cleared the road for our neighbors and, for any police or ambulance that might need to get through.

We cleaned up the area a bit and then my wife told me that she wanted to stay somewhere else for the night. I really wanted to stay, but keeping her calm was more important so I agreed and we went over to her parents house who were away on vacation at the time. (An after the fact bug-out)

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