Charley leaves long scar across region

From the sky during a helicopter ride Saturday, you clearly see the hurricane’s path of twisted trees, scattered aluminum sheds, exploded pool enclosures and wind-scarred roofs.

A Charley’s-eye view of the hurricane’s rampage through Central Florida shows a line of damage from Haines City through Volusia County. The storm that blasted across the landscape of countryside and city left its mark on both.

Slowed only slightly by the destruction and death it caused at landfall in Port Charlotte, the hurricane crashed across Southwest Florida farmlands and small towns as it rushed toward Orlando.

The hurricane first blew across Polk and Osceola counties, damaging mobile homes here and there near Haines City, snapping poles carrying power-transmission lines at Loughman, then ripping the roof off the gym at Poinciana High School. Yellow insulation was scattered across the school grounds Saturday, a roughly opened package tossed aside.

The storm hurried on to nearby mobile-home parks, dealing some of the heaviest damage in the area to residents of the Broadmoor, Whispering Pines and Windsor parks near Kissimmee.

At Broadmoor once neat double-wide mobile homes on large lots around a serpentine lake were stripped of shingles, sheds and sometimes whole roofs. A washer and dryer sat on a concrete slab next to a home. The aluminum laundry room was scattered across a nearby green field like Christmas tinsel.

Clipping treetops as it went, the storm sliced through more-affluent neighborhoods, too, scratching shingles off roofs at Buenaventura Lakes.

At Kissimmee Gateway Airport, hangars were damaged or destroyed and small planes were flipped. Charley later tossed planes at Orlando Executive Airport, too, leaving them scattered across the tarmac as if a child had tired of play.

Thousands of cars on Interstate 4 inched slowly back toward Tampa and St. Petersburg all day Saturday, a mileslong snake of evacuees inching bumper to bumper in reverse of the storm. After nearing Orlando, Charley’s path followed I-4 north and east.

From above, Walt Disney World and other attractions to the west of I-4 appeared unscathed. An occasional roadside directional sign was knocked down; Charley confused anyone hoping for fun in its aftermath.

Damage in Orlando, Winter Park and suburbs to the north was difficult to discern from the air. Oak limbs on cars and porch roofs, shattered windows and scattered shingles remained hidden by the canopy of oaks that remains.

But farther north in Oviedo, where the storm’s eye passed Friday night, shingles were stripped from roofs on dozens of homes near Chiles Middle School. By noon Saturday some residents were scampering over rooftops spreading plastic tarps -- bright blue markers of the damage below.

The hurricane barreled north across Seminole County, tearing screens from pool enclosures and clutching more shingles. Then it was into Volusia, across Deltona and slamming New Smyrna Beach, where it knocked down trees, uplifted sheds and took out power before leaving Florida and its trail of destruction behind.

Dave Weber can be reached at [email protected] or 407-320-0915.