Twenty years later Charley lives on; Punta Gorda remembers well and takes an extensive look back

Neil Durrant moved to Charlotte County in 2019 and it didn’t take him long to learn about Hurricane Charley.

“It was one of those central moments,” he said. “There was ‘before Charley’ and there’s ‘after Charley’. Charley wasn’t just an event, it is always going to be a big part of Punta Gorda’s history, Charlotte County’s history. It’s always going to be one of those standout moments,” he said.

Durrant, who works as the local history librarian for Charlotte County Library and Histories, added: “I didn’t live here, but because of the people who have and because how important it was, I ended up knowing about it right away.”

Durrant and historian Jennifer Zoebelein have put together “The Landscape Was Changed Forever,” commemorating the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Charley.

The exhibition, composed of newspapers and interpretive banners, runs through the end of September at the county’s three libraries. The libraries will hold a special event on August 13, the day the hurricane changed Charlotte County forever.

“Twenty years is a major anniversary, so I think commemorating that is important just on the basic of historic events,” Zoebelein said.

“But I think for us as historians who work with this community and who engage people with the history of this community there is no way we could not have done something,” she said. “We would have done the community a great disservice had we not done this.”

Zoebelein, Durrant and a history archivist began working on the project last year. Zoebelein and Durrant did most of the research after the archivist left for a new job.

The biggest challenge was using the limited space the libraries had, Zoebelein said.

They used 500-word interpretive banners to tell the story about Charley and its aftermath, and newspapers from the Charlotte Sun, Englewood and Sarasota Herald–Tribune.

The exhibition doesn’t just highlight the hurricane, but also what else was going on in the world. One sports page highlights Michael Phelps winning his first of seven Olympic races.

Most of Southwest Florida only could read about Phelps’ heroics because homes were without electricity.

“It is interesting to put it in perspective of what else is going on in the summer of 2014,” Zoebelein said.

The researchers sifted through hundreds of stories and photographs, being educated about an event they and about 52,000 of today’s residents weren’t here to witness.

The goal was not only to show pictures of destruction, especially only two years after Hurricane Ian, Zoebelein said.

One of the images used in the display is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showing Charley’s unexpected late-morning turn that put Charlotte County in the storm’s bullseye.

“You can look at the satellite image from August 12 and look at the satellite image from early in the morning on the 13th and then look at the satellite image from 12 to 1 o’clock ,within hours it’s a dramatic change and I think for us as historians looking back on it as an historic event understanding that and how quickly it changed for people.”

The images show the destruction and the eventual Phoenix-like rise of downtown Punta Gorda.

“Just to understand, in images, the transformation of Charlotte County, particularly downtown Punta Gorda, in terms of what it looked like before Charley and what it looks like now,” Zoebelein said.

On August 13, a loop of national news footage will be shown, 20 years since the day Charley made landfall, and Charlotte County History Services staff will be on hand to answer questions.

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