High Wind — Orange, Florida

2004-08-13 · Orange, Florida

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Charley made landfall over southwest Florida as a category four hurricane with estimated sustained wind speeds of 150 mph. Moving north northeast at about 25 mph Charley crossed central Florida maintaining hurricane intensity through Osceola, Orange, Seminole, and Volusia counties. In Osceola County, widespread power outages and damage were reported, mostly to roofs, pool enclosures, awnings, weak buildings, and mobile homes. Much of the damage was due to the thousands of trees blown down. The greatest damage occurred in northwest Osceola County as the eye wall passed over the communities of Poinciana, Kissimmee and St. Cloud. Dozens of planes and numerous hangars were destroyed at Kissimmee airport. The roof was blown off the gymnasium at Poinciana High School. Wind gusts to 65 knots (75 mph) were reported at the Kissimmee airport, but much of the area was subjected to winds similar to the 91 knots (105 mph) reported to the north at Orlando International Airport. Three tornadoes were reported with the hurricane. One was an F0 tornado associated with the outer rain bands. The other two tornado-like events produced large but narrow areas of blown down trees in the eye wall. A 32 year old man was killed when his vehicle hit a tree across a road. In Orange County, similar damage occurred as the eye wall moved north northeast over the Orlando metro area, just east of the Interstate 4 corridor. A wind gust to 91 knots (105 mph) was reported at Orlando International Airport. A head-on collision at an intersection where a traffic light was out killed a 48 year old man. A wind gust blew a moving van over on a vehicle killing a 7 year old girl. During cleanup a 37 year old man fell to his death while clearing branches from a tree. Orlando International and Orlando Executive airports also received extensive damage to planes and hangers. Total estimated damage for the county was $881 million. In Seminole County Charley continued to maintain hurricane strength as the eye wall moved over most of the county. This resulted in in widespread power outages and damage to roofs, mobile homes, and boats and docks on the St. Johns River. Planes and hangars were also damaged at Sanford airport where winds of 80 knots (92 mph) were recorded. Damage at the airport was estimated at $4 million. No fatalities were reported in the county. Total estimated damage for the county was $47 million.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5422035. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.