Hurricane Charley left a lasting impression on Orange County dispatcher Chris Dobson.
Twenty years ago, he was off duty ahead of the storm passing over Central Florida. He said a shift of dispatchers was to come in the next day after the storm. That’s something that wouldn’t happen today, he said.
It’s one of the many things Charley changed.
Charley from Dispatch
“After that, there was not another hurricane that I was not in the dispatch center. We had not had one in so long. We were probably a little bit understaffed,” said Dobson, currently the dispatch supervisor for the county.
Dispatch officers had trouble leaving in the morning or those on duty had trouble getting home. The roads were blocked by down trees and wires. Tires were flat.
“After that, it was decided that we needed to keep more people here,” Dobson said.
Before Charley in 2004, the last major storm to hit Central Florida was Category 2 Hurricane David in 1979, which skirted the coast.
Charley was a wake-up call to a county that had forgotten how strong a hurricane can be.
Charley made landfall in Port Charlotte at 3:45 p.m. on Aug. 13 as a Category 4 major hurricane with winds blowing up to 145 mph.
The storm powered its way up the Interstate 4 corridor, blowing cars off the road. It arrived in Orlando at 9 p.m. where the Orlando International Airport recorded a gust up to 105 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The airport’s wind sensor was one of the few on Charley’s path that didn’t fail as it tore through the state. The storm was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane as it passed through Central Florida with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph.
Dobson recalls Charley’s winds forced the county for the first time to pause its emergency response calls.
“They put out the no response order, I believe when the wind got to about 50 miles an hour, and part of the decision was made because we had ambulances transporting to the hospital that was almost blown off the road,” Dobson said.
In 2004, a normal day for 911 calls totaled about 270 calls a day. During the days that followed Charley, the center saw call volumes totaling more than 600 calls. Charley knocked down thousands of trees around the county, hindering response times.
Orange County reported one casualty, a 5-year-old girl who was killed after a vehicle had been blown into the car she was in, according to the NHC. Charley was directly responsible for the deaths of 10 people in the United States. It caused $14 billion worth of damage for the country and a property claims service report showed insured damages of $6.8 billion in Florida. The experience was just the beginning of a six-week destructive wave for Florida in which three other hurricanes would follow, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne.
But things have been different since 2004.
Orange County now
Since then, call centers have been equipped with more people to handle incoming storms, a reserve shift of dispatchers is staffed at Orange County’s backup dispatch center, three shifts of dispatch workers operate at the main call center, and fire trucks are armed with chainsaws to clear up artery roads.
“We have more stations. We have more equipment in the 20 years since Charlie happened, and we have more personnel. We’re certainly more prepared,” Dobson said.
Meanwhile, in the Atlantic today, Hurricane Ernesto is making its way northeast away from the United States. The storm is expected to gain strength in the Atlantic’s warm waters over the next three days. It’ll do so at the beginning of what hurricane specialists call the peak of hurricane season which is between mid-August and mid-October.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts the rest of the season to remain very active, with a total of 17 to 24 named storms and eight to 13 hurricanes.
So far, there have been five named storms. Three of them have been hurricanes.
The season ends after Nov. 30.
