HURRICANE CHARLEY LOOKBACK
What were you doing on Aug. 13, 2004—other than battening down, and then cleaning up, after Hurricane Charley took the express lanes through Poinciana and Kissimmee after making landfall early in the day as a Category 4 storm near Punta Gorda.
You may also have been cursing the luck of Friday the 13th.
It was the first time hurricane-force winds blew through our area in 44 years, downing old trees, tearing roofs off buildings, damaging schools and the Kissimmee Gateway Airport and plunging the area into dark days and nights with no power.
Fun history facts: in 2004, prior to having a large online presence, the News-Gazette had Thursday and Saturday print editions. While our print deadline was around noon Friday for the Saturday paper, we sent the Saturday, Aug. 14 edition to the plant, which was then in Bradenton — an area in the National Hurricane Center's ground zero when Charley was supposed to be a "Tampa storm" — on Thursday night to assure printing and delivery.
Needless to say, our Aug. 14 edition was light on the Charley. We've shared pages from our Aug. 19 and 21 editions highlighting how Osceola County cleaned up and recovered — before we knew it was just first flotilla in a tropical train that would later include hurricanes Frances and Jeanne that struck from the other direction, and a brief threat in between from monster storm Ivan that stayed just to Florida's west.
Here's links to those editions: https://newspapers.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00028318/02757/images
and https://newspapers.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00028318/02758/images
Here’s hoping you won’t be reading by flashlight anytime soon.
