Did they tell the people in florida to stay put?

[southernleftylady]

did the goverment say to the people in the hardest hit area to stay put? a friend just said this to me.. is this true?

[Maeve]

1. They ordered evacuations of @ 1 million people

My aunt and uncle among them (worst of the storm hit a couple of miles from their home).
There was, however, a problem in that they told folks to go inland and that put some in the path, rather than out of it.

[mike1963]

2. I know for sure there were evacuations ordered for St Pete & Tampa

I was paying close attention because I lived in TPA for 16 years & have family and friends there as well as the Punta Gorda area. They did
evac the islands (Sanibel & Captiva) but not the inland areas where it
ended up hitting. The models indicated Charley would make landfall around the Tampa bay area, the sudden turn was (but shouldn't have been) a big surprise.

[teach1st]

3. I live in the Tampa Bay area

The media focused so much on TAMPA being hit that the warnings which were put out, which showed possible landfall from North of Tampa to South of Fort Meyers were downplayed.

The meteorologists at the Tampa Bay station that I was watching called the turn toward the Ft. Meyers area with great certainty well before the national media picked up on it. My parents called me that morning urging me to evacuate to relatives in Orlando and I told them that Orlando was in more danger than we were in the Tampa Bay area. They didn't believe me and didn't hear about Charley's turn to the right until later.