Hurricane Charley bore down on the Tampa Bay area late Thursday, packing winds of more than 100 mph and a potentially deadly storm surge that prompted hundreds of thousands of residents to clog highways and bridges as they fled the coast.
More than 800,000 residents in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties hit the road in the largest evacuation in the region's history. In all, 1.9-million people in 11 counties, including coastal areas of Hernando and Citrus, were told to evacuate.
That was the right response, said Gov. Jeb Bush, who witnessed the power of Hurricane Andrew when it hit South Florida in 1992. Bush called it "a scary, scary thing."
"There are storm surges that defy people's imagination," Bush said. "People don't understand the power of these things. ... If you don't go through something like that it's hard to appreciate its awesome power."
But few people in the Tampa Bay area know what a dead-on hit by a hurricane is like. The last time it happened was 83 years ago. Since then there have been plenty of near-misses, including infamous Hurricane Donna in 1960, which killed 50 people.
This Friday the 13th could see an end to that long, lucky streak.
Officials in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties went to bed Wednesday thinking the area might be spared, but they awoke Thursday to a much bigger threat.
Pinellas emergency officials acknowledged they initially underestimated the magnitude of the storm.
"We are charting new ground," said emergency management director Gary Vickers.
By Thursday night, Charley had become a Category 2 storm and was expected to strengthen to a Category 3 before making landfall along the Gulf Coast today. That means winds of up to 120 mph, up to 8 inches of rain and a storm surge that could hit 13 feet, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted the leading edge would begin sweeping across the region at midday, with the hurricane making landfall late afternoon to early evening. The location depends on how much Charley turns once it enters the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said.
Wherever it comes ashore, "this is a major storm and it will do major damage," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Jennifer Pralgo said.
The storm surge was particularly worrisome to forecasters because of how developed Tampa Bay's shoreline has become since the last hurricane hit in 1921. As the hurricane moves inland, its counter-clockwise winds push water from the gulf and bay onto shore. The waves surge over seawalls, highways and any other impediment with disastrous results.
"MacDill Air Force Base will probably be mostly underwater and parts of downtown Tampa could be underwater if we have a Category 3," state meteorologist Ben Nelson said. "In a Category 3, you can almost get to the point where Pinellas County becomes an island."
Charley is forecast to come ashore during low tide, lessening somewhat the risk from widespread flooding. But it follows weeks of record-setting rainfall, so it will hit already saturated ground.
"This is not the kind of storm you can just ride out," said Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, urging residents to leave. "This storm coming on the heels of two weeks of extraordinary rain is a bad situation. You can always repair your property. It's lives we're worried about."
Because of concerns about rising water, Tampa Electric officials warned they might cut power to downtown Tampa, Harbour Island and Davis Islands. That will make it easier to restore power later, TECO spokesman Ross Bannister said.
"We're positioning ourselves as if the storm is going to come right into the pocket," he said.
Meanwhile, Progress Energy Florida shut down one of its power plants in Pinellas County and might shut down two others today. Progress spokesman Aaron Perlut said that the utility might shut off power intermittently in Pinellas.
Officials will decide today whether to power down Crystal River's nuclear power plant. The plant will have to be powered down at least two hours before the storm is expected to hit, state officials said.
If Charley goes straight into Tampa Bay, the consequences could be dire. Two years ago Pinellas County officials estimated a Category 3 would cause more than $13-billion in damage, which includes wrecking a half-million dwelling units.
Hillsborough officials, while declining to be as specific, predicted two years ago that a Category 3 storm would destroy or seriously damage two-thirds of the county's 326,309 homes and businesses.
Counties along the Gulf Coast as far north as the Big Bend area declared a state of emergency, and hundreds of thousands of residents and tourists evacuated from the Keys to the Nature Coast. It was Florida's biggest evacuation since Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Residents in low-lying areas of these counties were ordered to evacuate: Monroe, Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Manatee, Sarasota, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus.
Hundreds of residents and tourists started lining up Thursday afternoon at nearly two dozen shelters across Pinellas County, toting blankets and bottled water, basketballs and playing cards.
"We're excited," said Theresa Julius, 36, who left her St. Petersburg home with her husband and five children, ages 2 to 17, to seek refuge at John Hopkins Middle School on 16th Street S. "We've never been through a storm like this before."
All day Thursday, Largo High School vice principal Eric Allen was under the impression that the Red Cross would help register evacuees. The school staff took on that duty, asking people to fill out cards with their names and emergency numbers. Hundreds of people, most of them elderly, stood in lines outside the school in the heat.
"It's a mess," said Lynn Hesse, 64, of Largo.
Pinellas County administrator Steve Spratt said emergency management officials anticipate having enough room for about 70,000 people. Should shelters fill up, he said, the county could use other facilities, such as movie theaters.
For those with no place to hunker down near home, the only option was evacuation. By 3 p.m. the Howard Frankland Bridge was backed up for 2 miles west of the Fourth Street N exit. Crossing any Tampa Bay bridge took two hours, state emergency officials said.
Law enforcement officials will begin combing evacuation areas at dawn, urging stragglers to leave.
Facilities all over the region closed down - schools and colleges canceled classes, government offices locked their doors and businesses pulled their shades early.
At MacDill Air Force Base, home to the nerve center of the war on Iraq, all but essential personnel were ordered out and all 12 of its KC-135 refueling tankers were flown to an air base in Kansas.
St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport shut down Thursday night and Tampa International Airport was expected to suspend flights around noon today. Postal workers, despite the pledge of braving rain and snow, were told to call in today to see if they're still delivering mail.
Palms of Pasadena Hospital in South Pasadena and two Tampa hospitals, Town & Country Hospital and Kindred Hospital, evacuated all their patients. At Tampa General Hospital on Davis Islands, members of the staff spent all day moving medical records, equipment and patients to higher floors.
Not everyone took Charley's threat seriously. Instead of getting ready for a hurricane, Betty Reina of Palm Harbor had prepared Thursday for a day at the beach by the Dunedin Causeway. She had her suntan lotion, radio and a clock, so she knew when to turn over. She said she had no idea whether her home was in an evacuation area.
"If I am, I'm not going anywhere," she said. "I don't care (about Charley). I did watch a little bit (on TV). As soon as I found out, I said maybe the Lord will push it away."
Times staff writers Jamie Thompson, Carrie Johnson, Louis Hau, Matthew Waite, Megan Scott, Eileen Schulte, Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Bill Varian, Jounice Nealy-Brown, Paul de la Garza and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report, which includes information from the Associated Press.
National Hurricane Center
