You Belong in Punta Gorda: Hurricane Charley - A Punta Gorda Memory - Five Years After - Part 3 - Racing from Coast to Coast to Beat Bonnie to Florida

More stories are drifting my way as we move closer to the 5-Year post Charley anniversary. I have asked people, who are willing to share these memories, if they feel it is too painful to recall the details -- most say no, yet when I interview them, the recall still brings sobs. Here is part of Sandy's story leading up the start of the storm.

Her daughter was making breakfast on the morning of August 9, as Sandy gazed out at a the peaceful view of the Pacific. As many Punta Gorda retirees do in the summer months, Sandy and her husband were traveling. They had driven across the country to visit family and tour. It had been a fun journey with stops in Memphis seeing the Peabody Hotel ducks, then St. Louis, and Topeka, onto Ogdon, UT, and Idaho, Seattle, and Sacramento. The last stop before returning to Punta Gorda was their daughter and son-in-law's home in San Diego, which they were scheduled to leave in a few days for the journey home.

Then the news came over the TV. A tropical storm that might possibly reach hurricane strength was heading towards the Gulf. Aware that they would have to cross highway 10 that runs along the south of the country parallel to the gulf, they decided it was time to go home. If they didn't leave, they realized they might not be able to get home for quite awhile. Accustomed to road trips they quickly plotted a course that would have them arriving in Punta Gorda on August 12. They packed , and were ready to leave mid-day. First destination, Tuscan, on the 2500 mile trek to their Southwest Florida home.

By the night of the 10th, they were in Fort Stockton, Texas planning to be at the panhandle of Florida by the 11th. They were heading into the path of Bonnie, a tropical storm threatening to turn into a hurricane, and determined to get there and past the storm. As they listened to the weather news that evening, they heard the first mention of Charley. "What's this Charley," Sandy asked outloud. It was then that they learned that another hurricane was making its way towards the Florida pennisula.

By the 12th, the couple had successfully avoided Bonnie, which turned out to be more of a typical tropical system, bringing torrential rain to the eastern states, (and possibly bearing part of the responsibility for Charley's veering east sooner than expected). By the time they reached Punta Gorda, Charley was already a hurricane being forecast to hit near Tampa. The concern for coastal towns south would be the potential for storm surge. At first Sandy and her husband made plans to stay, stocking up on necessities, boarding up etc.

But then at one o'clock on August 13 they heard a forecast that had the storm earmarked for Charlotte Harbor. They decided to move to higher grounds and headed to a friend's home in Deep Creek, a community northeast of Punta Gorda proper. The roads were empty, as Sandy recalls, making their getway fast. At about 2:30 p.m. on the afternoon of the 13th they pulled into the driveway of the friend's home on the north side of the Peace River.
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Below is a video shot by two professional hurricane trackers who took the same trip from Pennsacola to the Charlotte Harbor area...only their trip was the 12th and 13th of August, arriving at I75 near Port Charlotte, Florida at around 4:30 p.m. as Hurricane Charley thundered through.