Open Writing

Here is a vivid eye-witness account of damage left by Hurricane Charley, which blasted its way through Florida causing billions of dollars worth of damage a few days ago.

Terry Littleton and Vicki Johannes live in Bokeelia, a condominium community on the northern tip of Pine Island, one of the barrier islands off the Florida Gulf Coast. They drove over from Ft. Lauderdale on the east coast the day after Charley hit.

This is Terry and Vicki from C-1, one of the buildings in the Blue Crab Key complex
We went over yesterday from the Ft. Lauderdale area and kind of played convoy with Claudia and Joe from H Bldg. They were great people to meet and did a lot of checking of other peoples units too. Even cleaned out refrigerators for some.

By the time we got there, traffic wasn't real bad. You could start to see pine trees and highway signs down on I-75, starting about Bonita Springs. Just got worse as you got closer. We started noticing roofs damaged about Cape Coral, Veterans Parkway. But when you made the turn from Veterans onto Pine Island Rd, it looked like Homestead did after Hurricane Andrew destroyed it in August 1992.

Remember all the tall pine trees across from the farm market between Burnt Store Rd and Matlacha Isles. GONE and all across the road. People had chain-sawed the road clear. The gift shop at the foot of the Matlacha bridge next to Pine Bay Seafood is destroyed. Waterfront Motel lost the back half of the building. Looked like Snook Inn lost the back half. Sandy Hook ( A restaurant) looked OK. Scattered minor and major damage everywhere. Hit and miss though. Building destroyed, trailer next to it OK. Weird, like a tornado.

Almost all the telephone poles are snapped off at ground level or about 4 feet up. Those standing are at a 45 degree angle. The big 12" sq concrete power poles just N of A-1 Pizza were snapped in half. All the tall palms in the farms look like they were planted at a 45 degree angle IF they are even standing. The wind stripped the bark off the trees and they look weird - all orange looking.

As for Blue Crab - we are all VERY lucky except for about 4-6 unfortunate souls. L-6 was the hardest hit. There is NO roof. Several other buildings like H, I and D-6 are missing small parts of the roof. But that is about it. Like I stated earlier, broken windows here and there. Twila C-6 and Gene C-4 rode it out. She said the winds came from the East. Several boats under E unit were pushed out into the back yard. There is soffit missing on all the buildings and Twila said the wind sucked out all the blown roof insulation and it looked like snow. Here is what I saw on the buildings I looked closely at.

A-1 has a broken top stairway window and the boat fender was crushed against the wall. The rest of A looks OK. B-1 has a totally missing upstairs window but all other units OK. All of C (thank goodness) is fine. We (C-1) lost screens on the porch but that's all. D appears OK except for unit 6 whose roof is sitting in the parking lot. It appears that all the buildings that were oriented E/W took a hard hit on the east end as the wind was able to get under the edge of the roof. Anyone with a boat in the storage yard has tall trees burying it.

The fences around the storage yard and trash and water treatment area are destroyed. BUT both pools and both club houses look fine. Maybe some screen panels lost. All the pool equipment covers are gone with one across the canal behind D bldg.

Anyone who wanted new landscaping, now is your chance. And if you wished for a better view of the canal, you have it. But you also can see all of the houses across the canal. ALL the tall pines are gone as well as most of the mangroves. Guess I shouldn't have asked when they were going to get trimmed. ALL the big shade trees are down or all limbs off about 6 ft up. Most palms are OK, a few blown over out of the wet ground but most can be stood back up. All the trees near the putting green are blown over. All the tall palms have fronds all twisted around. The weirdest thing was the tall Norfolk Island Pines (look like big Christmas trees). The wind stripped ALL limbs off the trunk on only one side, and behind D there is one, 30 foot trunk that looks like a flag pole.

All in all, unless you were in one of the few units that lost a roof, you probably only have sliders or screens or maybe a window damaged. When you see the pictures of the complex and the rest of the island, you will see how BAD it COULD have been. I expected only the concrete walls left. I saw Homestead after Andrew.

There is NO electricity, water, sewage or telephone. Cell phones work somewhat as those of you I called know. Maybe they will work, maybe not. If your unit is secure, I would stay home for at least a few weeks. They say it will be at least a week before power is restored. Understandable, as most poles are gone. It is extremely humid, there is no shade anymore, and it is just miserable out there. BUT if you want to rough it and live in your unit, you could. I don't know what the clean-up plans are. Most of the work will be tree cleanup and I don't know whether that is a volunteer-owner job or if someone will be hired to come in and do it. I guess our Condominium Association President will need to keep us all advised as to that and other plans.

The trailer parks up toward Bokeelia are gone. There are large pieces of sheet aluminum from the trailers wrapped around trees, across the road, all over. They are gone. But then here and there others are fine - just hit and miss. It gets worse as you get to Bokeelia. Bocilla Island Club is as far as we could get. I heard Pineland Marina is destroyed and they said the large boat bldg and its boats look like a giant just rolled it up like a carpet.

IF you have damage - please contact Bill Shulte and he will arrange to secure it. He also asked PLEASE let him know WHO has keys to access your unit. He can't cover up a broken window if he can't get in. He has gone overboard helping everyone and was running all around yesterday doing whatever he could.