HURRICANE CHARLEY

On August 13, 2004 Hurricane Charley struck Florida. Following is classmate Donald Ehlen's account of his experience, as well as advising us about the effect it had on Sharon Stuntebeck Anderson and Ted Merickel.

It is Friday morning August 13, and I am standing on the balcony of my 3rd floor Condo and starring out at a very calm Gulf of Mexico with the sun shining brightly and just a little breeze. I am trying to contemplate what this scene was going to be like in about 8 hours when the heart of hurricane Charley was forecasted to come roaring ashore here with winds up to 115mph and bringing with it a surge wave estimated to be 20 feet high. Although a mandatory immediate evacuation order had been in force since yesterday, I was one of a stubborn or more apt, "foolhardy" minority group of residents who after considering many factors, decided to ride Charley out in my own place. If my residence had been on ground level I never would have considered staying, but I felt I was high enough up not to be engulfed by the tidal wave that was forecast and the building was designed to handle hurricanes.

I hear a knock on my door, open it, and there stands Dolly, another resident who also, with a lot of misgivings, decided to stay in her own place. Dolly said, "Donald, we have to get out of here. My kids are calling me from Chicago telling me I an "nuts" to stay." I told Dolly that I thought we would be all right where we were, reminded her that her car and mine were parked over on the mainland on high ground, and she could leave if she wanted to, but I was staying put. She also reluctantly decided to stay and left. A short time later, there was another knock on my door, and it was Dolly looking a lot more frantic than on her previous visit. She said I had to talk to Randy, another resident in the complex. So I go down with her to talk to Randy, who was leaving shortly to go to a designated shelter on the mainland. Randy said he had been through a hurricane before and Charley could cause the whole building to come crashing down. I was not buying it, but one look at Dolly told me she was, and if she stayed because I would not leave, I would have a "basket case" on my hands. I said OK we will leave, go get your dog, pack a few things, and we will ride over with Randy to get my car. I did the same.

When we and our dogs were settled in the car Dolly wanted to know where we were going. I stated that no designated shelter would take pets, no motel rooms would be available, and although we did have a few other local options, I decided that our best option was one of those picked by a large segment of the approximately 400,000 people who had evacuated the area on Thursday, and that was to go east to Orlando. Off we went.

We crossed the bridge into Tampa, drove through Tampa in record time as there was no traffic and got on the I-4 freeway to Orlando. We had the car radio turned to a powerful Tampa radio station that was broadcasting nothing but hurricane news. As we were driving Dolly told me that her sister had a Condo over in Port Charlotte that she stayed at during the winter months and she had a key for it but there was a problem. She went on further to state that her sister had discovered that a local lady who was watching the place had let people stay in it without her sister's OK. As a result her sister had changed the locks and the key would not fit. I said that was to bad because Port Charlotte was an easy drive and if we went there we would have a roof over our head and the dogs, and we would be out of Charley's path. Little did I know.

As we continued toward Orlando I decided that we would go to Lake Wales, where I am a partner in a partnership that owns rental units on a lake that has no public access. Although no units were available, we could ride Charley out in the main house which included the complex office and manager's residence. The dogs would have plenty of space to explore and could even go swimming. I told Dolly this and she said OK. I didn't mention the alligator that also used the lake.

Shortly after we exited I-4 and were heading South I pulled into a McDonalds for something to eat and stretch the dogs. As we were eating our lunch on the hood of my car and feeding the dogs, a man walked over and asked where we were going. I said Lake Wales. He said better not this area is under a hurricane evacuation order and I am leaving now to go to the airbase at Orlando where I got the last space they had. I took one look at the sky we were heading into. It was pitch black with six funnel clouds hanging from its lower extremity. I immediately decided Lake Wales was out of the picture. The man gave us directions on how to bypass the traffic congestion of Orlando and arrive at Coco Beach on the Atlantic ocean where he was sure we could find a motel that took dogs. Off to Orlando and the Atlantic.

When we arrived in the Orlando area we were greeted by blinding rainstorms. Driving was difficult, so I pulled into a gas station to wait until the storm let up. We sat in the car, sipping coffee and listening to the radio. In a few minutes some startling news came over the radio. Charley had shifted course, was now a level 4 hurricane with winds up to 145mph and was expected to come ashore at Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. Its new projected path was directly over Lake Wales and Orlando. Dolly and I looked at each other in disbelief. As I listened further to the radio I decided our best bet was to reverse course and head back home to where we started. Off we went

The trip back was uneventful. The dogs were just fine. Mine, a CockerSpaniel/Pomerian mix was asleep on the front seat between us. Dolly's dog, a Scottie, was sitting up on the back window ledge of the car. There was little conversation as we were glued to the radio listening to people call in to the station on their cell phones from the area where Charley had made land. We from time to time ran into blinding rainstorms. Then conversation would be like slow down you are driving to0 fast. No, I am not. Or, slow down I can't see the road. I am driving and I can. Another time, Dolly said, " I think one of our dogs in passing gas." I had also detected this and said, "I know, it is Matti (my dog) and it must be that double cheeseburger I fed her when we stopped at McDonalds."

There was very little traffic on the freeway. We did come upon a one car accident where the car had rolled over and came to a stop resting on its roof. The car had passed us shortly before at a high rate of speed and evidently hit one of those deep pools of water on the road that we were encountering frequently, and flipped. No other vehicle was around and no sign of any occupants. A Florida Hwy. Patrol car was just arriving on the scene from the East bound portion of the freeway so I kept on going.

When we got back to the Tampa area other than rainstorms we encountered no bad weather. But the authorities had not lifted the order that prevented us from going home. So we drove around leisurely until the order finally was lifted. We headed toward home again in record time. As we headed down the Blvd. on the mainland to our bridge crossing, Dolly said keep watching for a liquor store that is open. After today I need a bottle of wine. I said I didn't think there was any chance of that as we had not seen one open store of any kind within miles. But a short distance later we saw a man standing along side the road with a hand printed sign. The sign said, Liquor Store Open, with an arrow pointing. In we went and Dolly got her bottle of wine. I said to myself, somebody up there sure has been working for us today.

We arrived back at our Condos under a setting sun at 8:00 PM. Not a drop of water on the ground. As we were standing beside the dog relief area letting the dogs do their thing. Dolly said to me, " I am sorry for all the trouble I put you through today. You were right, we would have been fine right here. My reply was, " No Dolly, you were right to get me to leave. If we had stayed here who knows what would have happened. If Charley had come ashore here as predicted when we left as a level 4 hurricane with winds of 150mph instead of the 115mph I was expecting who knows what would happen. We dodged a bullet today".

Sharon Stuntebeck Anderson who lives not far from me inland on higher ground and not on any water stayed at home and had an uneventful day. Ted Merickel who has a house on Ft. Meyer Beach which sustained a lot of Charley damage, told me from his Minnesota house that a neighbor told him the only damage to his house was some shingles off the roof. John Ehlen, Class of 56, who lives in a house on the beach in the Venice FL area, and who also was in a mandatory evacuation area (but didn't), suffered no storm damage.

We suffered extensive damage to the complex in Lake Wales which was directly in Charley's path. All the tenants cleared out with the exception of one family who had no place to go. So they stayed in their place and were providing protection from "looters". Don't know how we would have fared if we had made it there.

Who knows what would have happened to us and the dogs if it had not been for a changed lock or a tornado warning. I thought about all those people who obeyed the evacuation orders, went to Orlando or what were to be safe places when the evacuation took place, only to find themselves now in the direct path of the hurricane. I never thought we were in trouble as long as I knew what Charley was doing. After all I could move at 70mph while Charley was moving at 32mph. Being in a heavy car was no sure thing if Charley had overtaken us. That was evidenced by a picture I saw in last Sunday's newspaper. It showed one of those U-Haul van cab trucks sitting in the middle of this pile of rubble on all four of its wheels, tires fully inflated. Charley had picked it up and dropped it through the roof of a liquor store. The owner of the store was inside hunkered down when it came through the roof. I can just imagine his surprise. His only published comment was the darn thing almost killed me.

I have been through major earth quakes in San Francisco and Mexico City. I have also been in a tornado. Given my Charley experience I can't say that I have been in a hurricane. But after seeing the devastation that Charley has wrought, I don't want to ever be able to say that I have done the "hat trick" by experiencing 3 of mother nature's most powerful weapons of mass destruction.

Don (Mike ) Ehlen

Note: Conrad Cox, who lives on the Atlantic coast of Florida, says of Hurricane Charley, "We did fine here on the Atlantic coast - few brief rain sprinkles and a
little breeze"