Hurricane Survivors Haunted by Bodies

[DaveSZ]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=12&u=/ap/charley_mobile_home_park

Hurricane Survivors Haunted by Bodies

2 hours, 20 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - When Cindy Vallier returned home Saturday after Hurricane Charley, the bodies of the old couple across the road were lying in her front yard, covered in blankets.



Staring at the old man's black wheelchair and twisted walker wedged under her husband's upturned truck, Vallier wonders how she can bear to move back to Crystal Lake mobile home park.


"Every time I walk down here, there's two dead people in my driveway," she said, envisioning the memory that will haunt her. She surveyed the twisted wreckage engulfing her home. It's what is left of her dead neighbors' doublewide trailer.


Crystal Lake, like much of Punta Gorda, is a scene of utter devastation. But like so many in this blessed and cursed part of Florida, Vallier knows she has no choice but to start again where she was.

-more

[KittyWampus]

1. Mortifying. This Is Unacceptable.

:cry:

[Elginoid]

36. unacceptable...?

ummmmm....and who do you propose we see about this?

[jdj]

2. I'm so sad to read this.

It turned east so quick, they expected it to go further up and hit Tampa. I am so saddened to hear this, I cared for my elderly grandmother the last two years of her life, and it is scary how defenseless the elderly truly are. At least they went together, in some cases that is a blessing.

I don't think anyone foresaw this turning into a cat. 4 until it was too late, or too late to evacuate the elderly.

[Carni]

3. These old people probably had no way to evacuate

This is really sick...I hope someone offered them a ride to a shelter of some kind.

[lebkuchen]

23. They should have been escorted out by the National Guard

Where was FL's NG?

[Pachamama]

26. But they are in Iraq fighting Big Bro's War, right?

:eyes:

[Desipient]

4. I am concerned about the insurance companies

that do business in Florida. They were hit hard too. Lots of casualties in this hurricane; not just people but businesses, too.

[WLKjr]

5. that's nice....

Why didn't they just evac these people in the first place?

[QC]

17. The area around Tampa was evacuated,

since that's where the storm was expected to make landfall, but unfortunately Charley did not cooperate.

Tracking is a lot more accurate than it used to be, but storms can still shift suddenly. I live in the town where Bonnie was predicted to make landfall, and we stocked up on water and candles, secured anything that could blow around, etc. only to have the storm suddenly shift and come ashore in Apalachicola, about 60 miles from here.

So even the best laid plans can gang aft agley when you're talking about the weather.

[jdj]

6. And the viral marketeers, I heard that they were absolutely

devastated.

[Shadder]

7. You have to be kidding

thats really sick

[thebigidea]

8. let us all shed a tear for the poor, downtrodden insurance companies.

Those brave companies that do it out strictly out of compassion, never even considering payment. God bless them, every one!

[Shopaholic]

16. Freeper. Typical. Profits over people. . .

every single time. Let's see what they'd think if their area was devestated by a natural disaster and bodies were piled up left and right with billions of dollars of damage all around them and then have to watch as the insurance company they had paid good money to for insurance protection all these years went bankrupt rather than pay out claims. It happened in South Carolina after Hugo and it happened in Florida after Andrew. How awful it must be to be so selfish and self-centered and to worship the almighty dollar and commerce instead of having sympathy and compassion for the dead, injured, and homeless. Wouldn't Jesus be so proud of you?

[Pachamama]

29. Cheney insurance companies....we had a devastating fire over 5 years

ago and it has taken us well over 5 years and lots of lawyers and lawsuits even against the insurance companies to get them to pay up to their policy. We won finally, but only because we had the money to afford lawyers and the time to take them on. Most people don't have that and they know that. In fact, our lawyer used to work for the insurance industry and says that if they owe you $400K, they would rather pay you 4 years later, even with interest and they have salaried lawyers anyway, so what's it to them?.....:grr:

Don't have one bit of sympathy for the insurance companies, not ever...Feel sorry for the policy holders that are now having to deal with them and then face huge increases later and only pennies on the $$$ for their losses....

[alcuno]

11. How odd.

FAUX News had a headline up about insurance companies losing money. Losing money? Isn't their business all about insuring losses such as these? Isn't this why people pay premiums? People are dead. People are homeless. Businesses are ruined. You are worried about the insurance companies. Odd.

[bluedog]

42. I doubt it.100% + increase in Insurance

We are paying 100 + percent more now for premiums of house insurance than when we did in 1982(year we moved here)...some companies won't even insure us........I have had two companies turn me down when we moved to new area........its hard as hell to get insurance.we now pay over 1000 a year.........and after this I expect it to go up.

This my friends is why people didn't have insurance on their already paid for homes..it was unaffordable......some of our citizens are just making ends meet to put food on the table and-pay the necessary bills.

[Lindacooks]

18. You're concerned about insurance companies?

That's a very strange thing to say in the middle of a discussion about human deaths.

[Desipient]

19. I'm just saying...there were LOTS of victims

More than just those that are obvious

[Skittles]

32. Desipient

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt but lord it truly is insensitive to talk about insurance companies when the dead have not yet been buried or even found in many cases. Start again, OK? :)

[dionysus]

21. INSURANCE COMPANIES!?!?!?!?!!?

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL... gimme some of that crack you're smoking!!!

[lebkuchen]

24. USAA insures military/retired military

If you go to their webpage, there is a notice telling you to call them. They are ready to help. That is their job.

[jdonaldball]

30. Sick. Insurance companies are parasites. And corporate, not human.

Weeping for insurance companies is like weeping for a nest of mosquitos while dead humans are nearby.

[Bridget Burke]

31. The insurance companies will just fire some employees

And raise their rates in other areas to make up the difference. Expect to hear more about how "tort reform" is needed to lower insurance rates.

[TankLV]

41. Yeah - just like in Hawaii - when almost ALL of them filed for bankruptcy

Before paying a single red cent to those that faithfully paid their premiums. Left everyone high and dry.

And it doesn't take too much effort to guess who owns most of all those new gleaming skyscrapers in most cities.

But they always plead poverty when push comes to shove.

Privatize all the profits and publicize all the risks.

I won't hold my breath waiting for this horrible scandal to be rectified.

I just wonder how many bunkerboy's family have holdings in them.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

9. they burned the bodies in Galveston, big pyres of burning bodies..

...of course, w. 8,000 dead, not much else to do....

[WLKjr]

10. No way...

you have to be kidding me. 8,000 dead ? burning them?

[geomon666]

12. That was in the early 1900's WLK

so calm down. :)

The weather channel is reporting 'Hundreds Missing' now so this isn't over by a long shot.

[WLKjr]

15. My cable is down and the local channel sucks

so I am left with like 2 newspapers that I only get glimpses of and the only other source I have is here and news sites online.

I was gonna say dude, that whacked out.

[jmcgowanjm]

37. Not so fast- from Hurricane Andrew

Uniformed soldiers stared at me blankly from the rear of
the vehicle, where filled body- bags lay stacked on top of
each other.
Soon thereafter, thick torrential black smoky clouds rolled
across the grove headed in our direction. The stench of
burning flesh mixed with lime descended so rapidly we
didn't have time to react. The rolling smoke blanketed us
and choked us with coughing fits. Continuously blowing our
way for days on end. Metrozoo was burning dead bodies
around the clock, at the back of their property. Five days into
the aftermath the fires still raged on, while we gagged on
thick dark mucous being coughed up from our
lungs.

Insurmountable problems escalated with each passing
hour. We had no sanitation facilities. What little water
we managed to find was contaminated. We competed
against rhesus monkeys and big apes searching
for salvageable food. Asbestos dust blanketed everything.
Rusty nails poked us. Slivers of broken glass pierced our
every touch. And then, there were the nights ...when we
moved about in total blackness constantly attacked by swarms
of mosquitoes. Cock roaches and scorpions took over. Rats
ran rampant. Snakes slid out of nowhere. As the
unbearable temperatures climbed higher and hotter, colonies
of maggots nested in rotting food and animal corpses. And,
it wasn't long before armed looters began to
infiltrate.

http://www.whereheavensmeet.com/andrew/ch24txt.html

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

13. worst natural disaster in US history..yes, 1900..

...lots of dead animals, too, in hot and humid weather, so that was the most expedient method at that time....

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. The devastating Galveston hurricane occurred in 1900

I found the following paragraph on a website that gives details of the storm:

http://www.disasterrelief.org/Disasters/980813Galveston/

High heat and humidity quickly settled over the city and made the stench from the thousands of dead humans and animals unbearable. Bodies were stacked on barges, weighted, and taken out to sea for burial. But in a macabre twist, the tides soon deposited the bodies back onto Galveston's beaches. The city's temporary leadership ordered the bodies burned, and for days makeshift funeral pyres burned virtually nonstop.

[Minstrel Boy]

34. Stories of the Galveston disaster are heartbreaking.

The orphanage, and the nuns tying children to their bodies to weather the flood.

More than a hundred years ago and thousands of miles away, but it's no less unbearable.

[progressivebydesign]

20. That's really tragic..

.. but please tell me why cities and counties allow mobile home parks in states frequently hit by hurricanes? Or places hit by tornadoes? Our economy has gotten so poor in the past 20 years that a portable piece of tin that used to be for short vacations.. is now considered home. Sad, sad, sad.

If I lived in a mobile home, which is no better than a cardboard box in a storm, I would evactuate if a hurricane was 100 miles from me. How utterly tragic for these people.

[hlthe2b]

22. they allow them because they have no intentions or funding to provide

low cost housing. A very New Deal and Liberal-Progressive concept, that-- providing affordable housing for all and taking care of the weakest among us. Definitely doesn't fit with decades of "compassionate conservatism." :mad:

[progressivebydesign]

25. It's just the worst abuse of our system...

... living in things that do not conform to normal standards. You are not allowed to build an actual building with that level of vulnerability... but people are forced to make those their homes. I'm pretty certain "manufactured" homes do pretty much just as badly in the storms. Americans are like the frog in a pot of water on the stove.. turn the heat up little by little, and they don't even know they're being boiled. We've come to expect scrimping and trying to get by, that no one seems to question it anymore that we can't find affordable housing, decent jobs, the concept of a breadwinner caring for a family on one salary. A car that does not take 7 years to pay off!!! Kerry gets it. That's why I love him. He talks about those issues, just as Clinton did.

[FlaGranny]

35. We live in them because

we can afford them. If a hurricane blows my MH away, even if the insurance company does not pay up, we can afford to buy another one. It's a trade off. Do you work until you're so old you die on the job, or do you own your own home, free and clear, and nearly tax free. Of course, if a hurricane comes MY way I'm out of here in plenty of time.

I believe that the reason many people refuse to leave and die for their refusal is that many of them have pets they would not leave behind. I know I certainly wouldn't lock my dog in my mobile home and leave for a shelter, but we do have a few places we can go where we can take her with us.

One horrible story I read in my local paper was that a bunch of people had evacuated the Tampa area and went to Ft. Myers hotels. The police decided to evacuate the hotels less than 2 hours before the hurricane arrived, throwing all the hotel guests onto the street 2 hours before the storm hit, with NO PLACE TO GO. How stupid can they get?

[shanti]

39. hmmm

what about cement block homes? that's what jamaicans build with in the hurricane-prone caribbean, not mobiles, and they don't blow down. aren't they affordable too? living in a mobile in a hurricane zone just seems rather foolish, imo. but i do feel badly for the victims of charly:-(

[JohnKleeb]

27. tragic will do some praying tonight

Sad stuff happening in our own backyards, glad Kerry told his staff to help these people out.

[DoNotRefill]

28. It's very likely...

that they refused to leave. That happens a lot. My grandmother lives in Ft. Myers, and refused to be evacuated. She's without power, but alive.

[Rhiannon12866]

43. I am so grateful that your grandmother is fine

I lost my own grandmother five years ago, but she also lived in N.C., though on the West Coast, beautiful country; I visited her often. I am so glad that your grandmother is fine, power or not. Mine always freaked out during any snowfall, since the locals did, though she was raised in NY, like me, and used to blizzards. Best wishes for your grandmother.:-)

[NashVegas]

33. The Cost of Living in Paradise

tropical storms and critters.

[jmcgowanjm]

38. PortCharlotteHospital anemometer recorded 173mph

before it blew off.

As bad as anything Andrew did.

I haven't heard anything from Lakeland Orlando
area.

Cell phones don't work.

All roads in Chrlotte Co. closed. Forget
Sanibal and barrier islands.

100's are missing.

Charlotte Co pop 147,000

[Dem2theMax]

44. My aunt lives in Port Charlotte.

No one has been able to reach her. She has five sisters, and all have been trying to get in touch with her from various parts of the country, with no luck. Her area was not told to evacuate. So we are assuming she stayed put. She is 88 years old, lives on her own in a house, not a mobile home. She's also in the stages of heart failure and is on oxygen. I went on-line for a few hours to see if I could find out anything. Finally found a direct Red Cross number for her area. Called them and they took all the info. Now we wait. The police and fire departments are the ones who are going out and checking up on missing people. So all my other aunts and my Mom are freaked out. Then another aunt (one of the 'other five') had a serious stroke two days ago and it doesn't look good. I keep sitting here asking God to please not take them both at the same time. I don't know how my Mom or my other aunts could stand it.

I did get through to the Red Cross by cell phone. All the local web sites in that area were down. If anyone needs the number, this is for the Port Charlotte area. The number is 1-866-438-4636. I had to wait on hold for about 20 minutes before someone could take my call. I'm sure that if they can't check for the area you are concerned about, they should be able to get you a phone number closer to the area where you have family, if anyone needs to check on someone.

One of the reasons I'm posting so late is that I can't get on-line tomorrow (dial-up) and we can't have the phone tied up in case they try to call us.

So please keep my Aunt Audrey from Port Charlotte in your thoughts. And my Aunt Faith, here in Calif. She's the one with the stroke.
I hate being 3,000 miles away and not being able to do more than make a phone call and then have to wait. I feel so sorry and so concerned for everyone hit by this horrible disaster.

Oh, going by memory because I have this info under another screen name - Port Charlotte lost seven fire stations, the sheriff station, two shelters, and I think three hospitals had to be shut down due to damage. They REALLY got hit badly.

[pfitz59]

40. Lax building codes and zoning in Repuke states

Much of the destruction could have been prevented with proper construction. Cinder block, secured roofs and storm shutters. "An ounce of prevention......" You and I will suck up the cost via FEMA and higher insurance premiums. Bush brothers will claim glory....