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Radar Image of Ultimate
Chase's Location During Hurricane Charley ! |
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Hurricane Charley Satellite Image
and Final Track: |
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Hurricane Charley Photos: |
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Picture Above: Rare video of an extreme wind gust
over 160 MPH inside the eyewall of Charley. |
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Before Eyewall |
Before Eyewall |
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After Eyewall (Taken while in
the eye) |
After Eyewall (Taken while in
the eye) |
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Hurricane Charley Stock Video & Photos
Copyright Eye In The Tropics © Ultimate Chase Inc. |
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High
Resolution Satellite Photo Of Charlotte Harbor in
2002. Photo courtesy of
NASA |
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Aerial
Photo Of Charlotte Harbor (2002):
This arrow points to the location of the Race Trac gas
station on US Hwy 41 in Charlotte Harbor. This arrow
also represents the wind direction when the gas
station awning was ripped to shreds by winds over
160mph in the northern eyewall. |
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Location
1:
Ultimate Chase's location at the Race Trac
Gas Station |
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This is the location of the race trac gas
station. This area was devastated as the
north-eastern eyewall of Hurricane Charley
crossed with a super intense wind gust that
lasted for approximately 5 minutes ! This
intense southeast wind blast blew across peace river
unobstructed and slammed into
Charlotte Harbor. |
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Location
2:
Charlotte County Regional Medical Center |
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National Hurricane Center lists an
un-official wind gust of 150knots from this
location. This equates to 173mph !! |
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Hurricane Charley Chase
Account: |
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Chase
Account:
While all the forecast tracks were agreeing on a landfall in the
Tampa/St. Pete area, I didn't fully commit to this area because
I know that it really is impossible for humans or computers to
forecast a track of a Hurricane with 100 % accuracy and I always
stay prepared for all possibilities. I posted up at a data stop
just south of the skyway bridge and knew this bridge would be
closed as soon as the winds reached tropical storm force. The
areas projected to be hit were on the north side of the bridge,
but from the radar trends I wasn't sold on it making it that far
north. I didn't want to cross the bridge to the north in fear of
not being able to cross it back to the south if the hurricane
started it's eastward turn earlier than project. I finally
realized it was going to come in around the Ft. Myers area, So I
blasted south to Ft. Myers to find a good location to get shots.
I started hearing reports of Charley intensifying rapidly and I
knew instantly this was going to be a "Huge" story. I stayed the
night before at a hotel in this area and everyone was taking it
lightly because they believed it would hit Tampa. I noticed
allot of people that didn't evacuate and knew this was going to
be catastrophic. Just as I found a good solid parking garage to
use as a base, I noticed on radar that Charley wobbled a bit to
the north and this would bring landfall into the Charlotte
Harbor area, So I blasted back to the north and arrived into
Charlotte Harbor, just 1 mile north-west of Punta Gorda. I was going
to go to Punta Gorda, But liked Charlotte Harbor better because
the winds would be coming off the water and this would guarantee
the maximum winds this storm had to offer. |
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I arrived into
Charlotte Harbor just minutes before landfall and didn't
have much time to scope out the area for shots, So I picked
the first spot I saw that looked like it had a few strong
structures and parked my truck next to a gas station. It was
wild how the winds were only around 50mph and suddenly
increased to over 100 mph in only moments. I witnessed a
patch of pine trees bend with the wind, then snap like twigs
with a super strong gust that almost flipped my truck over.
I knew then the real show was about to begin and I had to go
back to the gas station I had scoped out moments earlier. I
knew this gas station awning was going to go, But I didn't
know if it would all go in one piece like a kite, or if it
would go piece by piece. Just as I thought the location I was at was
relatively safe, a large telephone pole landed behind my
truck with a huge transformer on it that made a really
loud crashing sound when it hit the ground. I moved
forward a few feet and positioned my vehicle as close to the
building as I could, but I knew I was stuck at this location
during the eyewall because it was too dangerous to move
around now and my truck would just be flipped over if I did. A
large piece of a roof went flying by and slammed into the
back of my truck and blew out my side window and rain got
all over my laptop and the rest of my equipment. The rain
was so thick and the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't see
more than 30 feet away and I knew this was the eyewall and
it probably wouldn't last very long since it was so small
and compact and the hurricane was moving in quickly. I
started to film..... The really intense winds lasted for
about 15 minutes. I kept saying to myself, "OK, the
winds can't possibly get any higher than this, can they?"
and they did! I never have been in a Hurricane this strong
to compare it to, but have heard reports of a recorded wind
gust of 173mph close by and believe this to be true.
Anyway, the sky got really bright and the winds dropped off
instantly and I knew I had nailed this one perfect as I was
in the eye of this beast. I measured 942mb on my barometer
and knew I had to find a better place to go for shelter for
the second half of the storm. The destruction was "Unreal"
as this was my first glimpse around because it was
impossible to see during the intense eyewall. The calm eye only
lasted for about 3-5 minutes and I was getting shots from
inside the eye when all of a sudden I was caught off guard
by the winds and had to take refuge in a bathroom of a half
destroyed antique shop that had all it's windows blown in.
The winds started howling and I heard nothing but breaking
glass, so I decided to stay in this bathroom and not worry
about getting shots because it was too dangerous with the
flying glass everywhere. While I was in the bathroom part of
the roof came crashing down in the shop and I knew then I
would have to ride out the rest of the storm in this small
room for safety. I did get cut from glass on my arm, but
nothing too bad. My heart goes out for the deceased and the
families that lost everything ! Stay Strong ! |
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Photographer, |
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Website copyright notice below: |
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Hurricane Charley video stills are copyrighted and
protected under United States and International
copyright |
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laws. These video stills may not be reproduced in
any form, downloaded, stored, or manipulated |
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without prior permission from Eye In The Tropics ©
Ultimate Chase, Inc. |
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