Hurricane Charley struck the small Gulf Coast retirement community of Punta Gorda, Florida, in August 2004 with recorded wind speeds of 173 miles (276 kilometers) per hour, killing an undetermined but significant number of residents and injuring hundreds more.
Local emergency manager Wayne Sallade said he had ordered 60 body bags and refrigeration equipment, with fatalities confirmed in at least four areas and possibly hundreds of people unaccounted for. Officials said residents had been given more than 24 hours of advance warning to evacuate, but many disregarded the alerts, doubting the storm would reach their town.
Punta Gorda draws retirees from across the United States, and many of its roughly 15,000 residents live in one of 30 mobile home parks particularly vulnerable to high winds. Debris-choked streets prevented emergency vehicles from reaching victims, and nearly all three of the town's hospitals were knocked out of service by storm damage and power failures.
Rescue crews used axes to force open apartment doors while firefighters worked through the night. At the National Hurricane Center, Ed Rappaport noted that warnings were issued about 41 hours in advance, but the storm's unexpected path also caught communities off guard farther south, including Fort Myers.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in August 2004, in its own words.