Hurricane Charlie...

Over the past few weekends, I've been going over to Cape Coral, Florida looking around at property. Cape Coral is directly adjacent to Ft. Myers, where Hurricane Charlie is scheduled to make landfall. This is the first hurricane in 80 years to strike this area.

For those of you not familiar with Ft. Myers, it's low lying area with very little elevation and a growing population. Lots of home building going on over there. This hurricane, with winds of 145 mph around the eye (currently 20 miles wide) could absolutely devistate this area.

This hurricane is the mirror image of Andrew and may well be more costly, as it's coming ashore in a heavily populated area. I'll head over in the next couple of days to bring supplies and lend a hand where needed. I'll take a few pics for the board while I'm there.

Say a prayer for these people, even if you're not religious.

Hi all,

Just returned from the Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte area on the west coast of Florida. The eye of the storm came in slightly north of the Ft. Myers area, by about 15 miles. Still, the islands of Sanibel and Captiva (barrier islands of Ft. Myers) were hit very hard. Access to the islands was denied by local authorities, but video taken from helicopters flying over the islands showed extensive damage. These were heavily forested islands with 100's of multi-million dollar homes. The islands have been almost entirely leveled, with most of the homes having significant damage. One section of Captiva Island completely broke away and is gone!

In Punta Gorda & Charlotte, an upscale and relatively newer city of mostly retired people, the damage is beyond belief. Trust me when I tell you, I did not see a single home or building that was not damaged. One memory that stands out in my mind... a Toyota dealership. It was completely gone.

You really can't begin to imagine how bad the damage is until you see it in person. Going through a storm like that is as close as anyone will come to... going through hell. However, hell has only just begun. These people will spend months (years) re-building their lives. Adding to the difficulty, the extreme heat and humidity of southwest Florida. It's oppressive. And did I mention the mosquitos?

I would urge anyone on YachtForums to make a donation to the Red Cross, or anyone living in Florida to visit a hurricane relief drop-off facility and bring whatever supplies you can.

One final note... Publix Super markets throughout Florida have set up a "Charley Relief Fund" program. They accept checks made out to the same.

Yesterday, authorities opened the bridge to Ft. Myers beach and we saw the damage first-hand. It's not nearly as extensive and hard hit as the Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte area, but it suffered extensive damage as well.

I don't know where the storage facility is located that you are referring to, as I don't live in the area, but if it's a high & dry rack system, chances are... there will be damage, even if it's inside storage.

I wish I could give you more info, but I'm not a resident of the west coast. However, I've become quite familiar with it over the past few days... even though there were no street signs for reference much of the time.

I hope your boat weathered the storm...

Good luck!