Hurricane Charlie - Five Years Ago

August 13, 2009. Five years ago today Hurricane Charlie entered into my life and did a good job of destroying my home. According to the county report my home was 66 and 2/3 destroyed. I decided right then that I would not rebuild nor would I own another house here in this area of Florida. I just was not going to go through the massive red tape to accomplish something that I probably would never be happy with. For the following month after the hurricane, my life was a nightmare. The whole area was turned into a disaster area and we had the army here taking charge, for which I was very thankful and grateful. They did a wonderful job of securing the area.

I am also grateful to the local neighbours that kept a night-time watch for looters. They actually kept a bonfire going through the night in a barrel set in the middle of the street just outside of where I was sleeping. I would have pitied any looters that might have tried to enter into the area. They would have been shot. Those young people meant business. Early on, there was no law enforcement except for what we as a group supplied in our specific area. The local law was incapacitated due to all the destruction of the hurricane. Electricity and water off and roads closed due to hurricane debris. Almost immediately the neighbours and I began to pile debris out to the sidewalks. No sooner did we get a huge accumulation of roadside debris hauled away by the county we began to pile more. This was repeated over the next few weeks several times. Each time the amount decreased until finally it was all cleaned up. I don’t remember how many weeks it took, but it was several. I could probably go into my back yard and still find small pieces of shingles still lying there as a reminder of Charlie. In between what seemed like a never ending chore we had to pick up ice and food near by from the army. The Red Cross was here and gave me money to buy a bed and some new cloths and groceries. That was greatly appreciated. We were under curfew for several weeks, we couldn’t be out on the streets after 7pm. That was really no problem for me. I don’t know about others. Since the water lines were underground, we had just enough water to flush the toilets which worked. After a week or so the water pressure in my area returned to normal. After three or four weeks the electricity was turned on. Things began to normalize, if you could call it that. The area remained in disaster mode for months. Ever so slowly, Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte have rebuilt and now after five years, the area is more beautiful than ever.

There are still some scars of Hurricane Charlie, but the trees are making a slow comeback. Many of the trees had broken limbs and broken trunks but those that survived have grown quite a bit in the past 5 years. The tall palms that used to sprinkle this area will take many more years to repopulate as people replant. Many of the fir trees in the area have been lost, but there are a few that made it. The street that I live on had many beautiful old trees, but they are all gone, however the neighbourhood is beginning to get its old charm back. Five years and a lot of hard work has made a beautiful difference.

Today I am going to spend with my youngest daughter working at the Elks in Port Charlotte. She is a cook/waitress there and I am her helper; dishwasher etc. I do that one day a week. Just enough to get out and circulate a little. It’s very enjoyable for me because that is time that I have to visit and talk to her in addition to helping with her work.

This afternoon I plan on getting my aquarium set up, get it started to cycling getting ready for a couple of fish. It is my intent to develop this eventually into an aquaponic system or feed into it. Presently it will be a hydroponic operation and I will use the change water to fertilize my regular nursery garden. I’ll keep you all posted as I continue with this project. Maybe even some pictures if I can talk Cody my grand-son into taking them. He has been in photography for some time and is continuing his studies in it with his last year of high school.

Thank you for reading my blog. Brad Vigansky