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Backtracking Hurricane Charley

I drove from Orlando to Fort Myers early this evening, which was pretty much back tracking against Hurricane Charley’s path. My whole trip home was full of sights of the messes and damage that this hurricane caused.

Along I-4 there were green Interstate signs completely ripped out of the ground. Before I even got that far there were oaks that were blown over all along the road from my apartment to the toll expressways.

Along I-75 I saw more out of state volunteers from a power company based in Indiana. They were actually headed south and got off at the same exit in Fort Myers where I exited.

Before I got that far down south I needed to fill up my tank with gas. I ended up stopping at Port Charlotte, which was actually purely coincidental. That exit was totally messed up. One gas station there wasn’t even in business at the time, because it was ravaged so badly. The gas station I stopped at was so new that I was left wondering if some of it had been put in after the hurricane — not likely. So I was impressed that the nice, new gas station was left untouched while the older one was nearly destroyed. One thing that I found somewhat funny was some of the graffitti on the wall in the bathroom. Someone had already taken the time to scribble “Fuck You Charley” on the bathroom wall.

Getting back to my neighborhood was a shock. This huge tree that is just past the entrance in the neighborhood was still standing, but completely raped of almost all of its limbs. I remembered playing on that tree when it was much shorter. As I kept driving around the circle I saw all of the debris that was gathered up and waiting to be taken away and all the debris that still needed to be picked up. I have never seen my neighborhood looking so bad. I am guessing that is why there is a brand new digital camera sitting here at my mom’s desk. She isn’t a camera user, but I think this storm’s aftermath must have changed that.

The strangest thing about this scene was driving up to my house. I had complete faith while in Alabama and afterwards that my house would be untouched by any storm that came through. Category 4 meant nothing to me — I know my house. Well, my yard was practically clean looking at first. There was one downed slash palm, and one (ONE!) of my mom’s more than 150 pots was broken. Everything else was either untouched or already cleaned up. I strongly doubt the latter explanation though, because my dad is 73 and does choose to work four days a week still. Also, my parents didn’t get home until a week after the storm.

My house went unscathed. No roof damage; no damage to anything. It is shocking when you look at EVERY OTHER HOUSE in the neighborhood. Well, I guess my dad will have to buy a new halogen light, my mom will have to get a new pot, and someone will have to cut up and haul away that pine tree, but other than that I was pretty much right to not worry about the house.

Weird.

Posted by David under News... Local |