Hurricane Charley

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. -- She knew Hurricane Charley had devastated her neighborhood and that the two trailers she owned were probably destroyed, but Cindy Vallier wasn't prepared for the shocking sight in her yard when she returned home late Friday. Two elderly neighbors were dead in her front yard, lying swaddled in blankets amid a twisted mix of metal and wood. "There they were, covered in blankets in my yard by the time police let me back to my house," Vallier said. "She was up against a truck, and he was up against his wheelchair.

Although hurricane victims typically die by drowning, more than half of the 31 people killed in Florida by Hurricane Charley last month died from trauma - in falls, auto crashes or the collapse of their homes, under falling trees, or when they were struck by flying debris - according to state public health officials. Only one of Charley's victims drowned, a finding that runs sharply counter to data showing that drowning was responsible for more than 80 percent of U.S. hurricane deaths over the past three decades.

Hurricane Charley didn't pack quite the punch the state was bracing for last night and early today, with only light rains reported west of the Chesapeake Bay. Only parts of the lower Eastern Shore reported heavy rain, with Salisbury and Ocean City taking the brunt of it. By 8 p.m., the National Weather Service called off its tropical storm and flood warnings for the Baltimore metropolitan region. But yesterday afternoon, before the storm's threat was downgraded, the state was preparing its emergency center, people were pulling out the sandbags, and local officials were getting ready for heavy rains and winds that looked increasingly less likely to come by morning.

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - Don't say the "I" word around here. These folks don't want to hear it. They are too weary and devastated to think and talk about Hurricane Ivan, but as they rebuild their city, that's exactly what they're doing. "If Ivan comes, I'll be through," said Tim Humphrey, whose home and boat were damaged by Hurricane Charley. "I'll pack my stuff in that little blue car. I ain't coming back." For more than a decade, this precariously located peninsular state had avoided a direct hit from a hugely destructive hurricane.

Nearly a million residents and tourists were urged to evacuate low-lying areas of Florida yesterday in preparation for Hurricane Charley, which is expected to slam into the Gulf Coast today, bringing with it heavy rain, 130-mph winds, swirling tornadoes and up to 17-foot storm surges. The hurricane was hovering over Cuba last night, gathering strength in the warm water, as Bonnie, downgraded to a tropical depression, migrated north. Bonnie was expected to bring up to 3 inches of rain to the Baltimore area overnight.

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. - Steve Kanstoroom, whose home on Maryland's Eastern Shore was gutted last year by Tropical Storm Isabel, wandered up a driveway near Florida's Gulf coast this week and found a couple sorting through the wreckage left by Hurricane Charley. The washer and dryer, the furniture, the clothes and even the walls - everything in the first-floor apartment seemed a total loss to Rachel Zammit. She said her flood insurance adjuster set the damage at $1,000. The stress, she said, has her smoking again.

Robert P. Hartwig, Hurricane Charley will go down in history as one of the nation's most damaging storms, costing an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion, but it won't have the wide-reaching impact on insurance providers and consumers that Hurricane Andrew did 12 years ago, experts said. Devastation of this magnitude has not been seen since Andrew struck Florida and other Southern states in 1992 and cost $15.5 billion - or $20.3 billion in current dollars. That storm, the most costly U.S. hurricane, altered the method that insurers use to predict costs.

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - Don't say the "I" word around here. These folks don't want to hear it. They are too weary and devastated to think and talk about Hurricane Ivan, but as they rebuild their city, that's exactly what they're doing. "If Ivan comes, I'll be through," said Tim Humphrey, whose home and boat were damaged by Hurricane Charley. "I'll pack my stuff in that little blue car. I ain't coming back." For more than a decade, this precariously located peninsular state had avoided a direct hit from a hugely destructive hurricane.

WASHINGTON - Initial unemployment claims rose last week for the first time in four weeks, boosted by more filings related to Hurricane Charley, a government report showed yesterday. First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 to 343,000 in the week that ended Aug. 21 from a revised 333,000 the week before, the Labor Department said. About half the gain was attributed to the storm, a Labor spokesman said. Hurricane Charley, which struck southwest Florida on Aug. 13 and caused 20 deaths and about $7.4 billion in insured losses, was the strongest storm to hit the state since Hurricane Andrew more than a decade ago. Initial claims rose by 10,000 the week that Andrew came ashore in August 1992 and by 8,000 the next week.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Tropical Storm Bonnie forced the Deeds family, vacationing from Gig Harbor, Wash., to cut short their trip to Naples. So on Wednesday they moved north to Tampa. Then on Thursday, Hurricane Charley forced them to leave Tampa, and they moved inland to Orlando, where they hoped to catch a flight home. But they were still there last night, and so was Charley. "We thought we would be safe here," John Deeds said yesterday, from the Hawthorn Suites Hotel in Orlando as Charley bore down, an unexpected guest in this tourist city.

First Atkins, then Charley and Frances. With Florida's $9.1 billion citrus fruit industry already reeling from years of overplanting, competition from imports and the low-carb craze, the recent back-to-back hurricanes destroyed more than a fifth of the state crop and will likely mean higher prices for consumers in the coming weeks. The latest blow, a double whammy that battered the state from the west coast and then from the east, swept through at least two-thirds of the fruit-growing land over three weeks.

As the second major hurricane in less than a month continued to bear down on Central Florida, residents counted the hours until landfall with a tumult of activities and emotions. "My mood? My mood is cautious," said William M. Vail Jr., 45, manager of Woodlawn Funeral Home in Gotha, where cemetery machinery was moved inside, debris from the last hurricane swept up, and business suspended. This freed Vail to head home for the evening, make popcorn and watch the movie Jersey Girl with his wife, Jillian, and two cats.

Several retailers missed the first bus for the back-to-school shopping season, posting weak August numbers as everything from higher gasoline prices to Hurricane Charley prompted consumers to stay away. Even brawny Wal-Mart Stores Inc. registered its most lackluster numbers in more than three years. The world's biggest retailer, which already had toned down expectations for August, squeezed out a 0.5 percent rise in sales in stores open at least a year. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call expected a 1.5 percent increase.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - The lights that flickered out during the violent passage of Hurricane Charley only came back on a week ago, blue tarps still cover holes in many roofs and haphazardly uprooted trees litter the sides of many roads. But Kissimmee has moved on from thinking about Charley to worrying about what could be a bigger, stronger storm - Hurricane Frances is moving inexorably through warm Atlantic waters on a path that could once again buffet this central Florida town with powerful winds and torrential rains.

An ominously "beautiful" Hurricane Frances churned across the Bahamas toward Florida last night with 140-mph winds -- the latest threat to the U.S. mainland from storms spawned during the busiest August of any recorded Atlantic hurricane season. A half-million people were ordered to leave threatened counties on the southeastern Florida coastline today, only three weeks after Hurricane Charley raked the state's southwestern coast with 145-mph winds, killing 27 people and wreaking $7.4 billion in damage.

Sue Taylor's family of five was supposed be flying to the Bahamas today, but she didn't see the point -- what with Hurricane Frances whirling in from the other direction. So the Taylors are staying put in Harford County for the Labor Day weekend. No swimming with the dolphins. No tanning on resort lounge chairs. No Caribbean celebration for 16-year-old Whitney, who had turned down a big birthday party in July in favor of a big vacation now. "Who wants to go to a tropical island with rough conditions and high winds?"

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - The scorching afternoon sun shone through Sue Marcoline's roof. Chunks of her ceiling lay in white heaps on the floor. Standing water covered her dining room floor and broken glass littered her living room. Marcoline had one question for Nationwide Insurance President Doug Robinette when he showed up at her home yesterday: How was she to live here again? Her house ravaged by Hurricane Charley, Marcoline, a real estate agent, called a claims adjuster from Nationwide.

Hurricane Charley's path of destruction -- across Pine Island, Punta Gorda, Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Captiva on the west coast of Florida and inland over Arcadia and Lake Wales -- is a grim reminder of the perils of hurricane season. Two tropical storms, Earl and Danielle, came on the heels of Charley, and travelers are wary of what else may be coming. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30. Travelers also are wondering whether they should take that Caribbean cruise in September or that trip to St. Thomas in October.

Hurricane Charley's path of destruction -- across Pine Island, Punta Gorda, Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Captiva on the west coast of Florida and inland over Arcadia and Lake Wales -- is a grim reminder of the perils of hurricane season. Two tropical storms, Earl and Danielle, came on the heels of Charley, and travelers are wary of what else may be coming. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30. Travelers also are wondering whether they should take that Caribbean cruise in September or that trip to St. Thomas in October.

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. - Steve Kanstoroom, whose home on Maryland's Eastern Shore was gutted last year by Tropical Storm Isabel, wandered up a driveway near Florida's Gulf coast this week and found a couple sorting through the wreckage left by Hurricane Charley. The washer and dryer, the furniture, the clothes and even the walls - everything in the first-floor apartment seemed a total loss to Rachel Zammit. She said her flood insurance adjuster set the damage at $1,000. The stress, she said, has her smoking again.