Hurricane Charley Veers North; Broward Spared the Worst

Hurricane Charley made landfall on Florida's southwest coast Friday afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane, devastating the Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte areas with sustained winds estimated at 150 miles per hour. South Florida, which had been under hurricane watches and warnings earlier in the week, was largely spared as the storm made an unexpected late-track turn to the northeast and accelerated into the Florida peninsula well north of Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The National Hurricane Center had carried Charley's expected track across the southern Florida peninsula for much of the week, and emergency-management officials in Broward had activated the county's emergency operations center earlier Friday. Broward County Public Schools had announced an early dismissal Friday and a closure for Monday in anticipation of the storm. Those plans remained in place Friday evening even after the track shift, with the district citing the need to inspect campuses and complete tree-debris cleanup before reopening.

Broward residents spent Thursday and early Friday running through the now-familiar pre-storm routine: gas-station lines stretching onto Sunrise Boulevard and University Drive, plywood and bottled-water shortages at the Home Depot and Lowe's on State Road 7, and cars wrapped around Publix and Winn-Dixie locations across Plantation, Sunrise and Pembroke Pines. Shutters went up on coastal properties along A1A from Hollywood to Pompano Beach. Boaters at Bahia Mar and along the Intracoastal moved vessels to designated hurricane holes.

Local damage from Charley's outer bands was limited. Sustained winds in central and west Broward stayed below tropical-storm force for most of the day, with gusts in the 40-50 mile per hour range reported by the National Weather Service Miami office. Rainfall totals across the county ran between one and three inches. Florida Power & Light reported scattered outages in Broward and Miami-Dade — most concentrated in pockets where falling tree limbs took down individual feeders — but no widespread grid damage.

The storm's shift north left southwest Florida facing a long recovery. Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte and parts of Charlotte and DeSoto counties absorbed the worst of the eyewall. Broward emergency-management officials urged residents to use the weekend to restock supplies and review household hurricane plans, noting that the Atlantic season runs through November 30 and that several other systems are already being monitored in the deep tropics. Schools are scheduled to reopen Tuesday.