Charley vs Sanibel & Boca Grande

Has anyone heard if Sanibel or Boca Grande Lighthouses survived the storm or not? If so to what degree?

I would be interested also. I will be in that area late September and was planning a lighthousing trip.

I've been trying to call the Boca Grande lighthouse most of the morning. The line has been busy. That may be a sign of equipment out or lines down, however.

Let's hope so.

Haven't seen anything on sanibel, but here is an article that briefly talks about Boca Grande.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040814/BLOG02/40814054&template=art_blog&EntryNo=3

To quote the article:

It sounds like the Boca Grande Lighthouse survived with no major damage! Let's hope the same goes for Sanibel!

I hope all of our friends from the lighthouse community are safe and sound after the storm! We should all pray for the people in Florida and elsewhere who have suffered the tragic loss of loved ones and the terrible destruction of property!

All my best,
Paul Conlin
Secretary,
ALF

John, it is very possible that their phones are out. My mom had phone service on Friday and Saturday and lost it yesterday. When I tried to call her, all I got was a busy signal. It may be a while before services get restored.

Glad to hear that Boca Grande survived the storm. Hope the news about Sanibel is just as good.

How odd...just saw a report on Sanibel Island on CBS news.

Officials are not letting residents on the island because it is just too dangerous. They showed a lot of aerial shots of the island, but I didn't see the lighthouse (I don't know the island at all, and didn't know where the lighthouse was in relationship to the areas they were showing).

It may be a few days before we find out about the lighthouse.

Okay, after snooping around a bit on the web, I found a current photo of Sanibel Island Lighthouse. It is still standing!

Sanibel Island

Once at this page, scroll down to the section "SETTING THE SCENES ACROSS SOUTHWEST FLORIDA" (about halfway down the page) then click on Sanibel update - "photos". The second photo shows the lighthouse. It is an aerial shot, so it is hard to see how much (if any) damage occurred. [Thanks to Paul for the link below]

I also saw a video from the local NBC affiliate that flew over the lighthouse, but the quality of the video is poor, but if you are interested, go to NBC Affiliate then click on "Comprehensive aerial tour of Lee County damage". Scroll down to Saturday - "Sanibel Aerials, part 2". The lighthouse appears in the first minute or so of the video.

here's the photo link..

Sanibel

From Pat Hoagland in the Sanibel area:

Hi: Thanks for writing. No deaths. Lots of damage I hear. We are not on the island. The causeway may be closed for a week so we hear. Go to city site www.mysanibel.com for more info. Only emergency people allowed on island. Pat

All my best,
Paul Conlin

Thanks for the update!

The news just said they were allowing people back onto Sanibel Island. Said about 75% of the properties received damage. Nothing about the light.

Boca Grande righting trees, repairing historic locales


By DENES HUSTY III, dhusty@news-press.com
Published by news-press.com on August 18, 2004


Emergency crews and citizens alike are pitching in to clean up the quaint community of Boca Grande, where historic landmarks and new condominiums were blasted by Hurricane Charley.

news-press.com
Click here for latest hurricane aftermath information


The Gasparilla Inn, where both former and current presidents Bush have stayed, sustained extensive damage to the main building and most cottages, said general manager Andy Nagle.

The 150-room inn, which was closed for the summer, will reopen on schedule in mid-December, Nagle vowed.

A large Cuban laurel tree, which provided a canopy under which many couples have been married over the past 100 years or so, was uprooted by the hurricane’s fierce winds.

Nagle said crews are standing the tree back up, hoping it will survive.

All over the island there is a can-do attitude.

“We have the intrepid spirit of the Florida pioneer. We got booted in the butt; now we’re picking ourselves up,” said Kathleen Rohrer, executive director of the Barrier Island Park Society, which manages the 114-year-old Boca Grande Lighthouse.

Like Boca Grande itself, the lighthouse “is damaged, but certainly not devastated,” Rohrer said.

Located on the 7-mile Gasparilla Island between the Gulf of Mexico and Charlotte Harbor, Boca Grande has been the vacation spot of America’s rich and famous.

Officials estimate that Hurricane Charley packed winds of up to 145 mph as it passed swiftly by the community of 1,000 year-round residents to wreak more extensive damage on Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte.

An official damage estimate has not been released, but residents believe it could run into the tens of millions.

“We had a lot of wind. Two or three homes were destroyed” and trees, some at least 100 years old, were uprooted and branches and other debris are everywhere, said Lee County sheriff’s Lt. Morgan Bowder.

As soon as the storm passed, about 100 workers around the resort island swung into action, Bowder said.

Within 15 hours, they had cleared the streets enough to make them passable, and residents are pitching in to help, he said.

About 90 percent of the homes and businesses on the island now have electricity and water, Bowder said. He said residents are still under a boil water notice.

It may take a month or so before the entire island is cleaned up, said Danny McKee, a Lee County supervisor overseeing the work.

Still, considering what people in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte are going through, “we’re unbelievably lucky here in Boca Grande,” Bowder said.

Many of the island’s historic places were damaged, though.

For instance, the catwalk at the top of the Boca Grande Lighthouse was torn off, as were hurricane shutters. Windows were shattered, as was one exhibit case inside the structure that is now a museum, Rohrer said.

Two original 114-year-old cedar wood cisterns were destroyed, she said.

But the assistant watch keeper’s house built in 1890 survived unscathed, and her group plans to reopen the museum to the public at 10 a.m. Saturday, Rohrer said.

Sherren Baughman, a watercolor artist living on Banyan Street, said she wonders whether the giant trees for which the street is named will survive.

The hurricane’s winds managed to uproot one giant tree and tore off hundreds of branches from others, making the street impassable for awhile.

Yet not one touched her house, built in the 1930s, Baughman said.

The hurricane also felled two majestic 50-to-60-year-old royal palm trees in front of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, which lost only a few shingles, said the Rev. Jerome A. Carosella, who rode out the storm there with his cat, Delilah.

Newer buildings also were damaged.

The roof to the Harborside Condominium, for instance, had extensive roof and water damage, said Hubert Longest of Indiana, who owns a unit there and arrived Tuesday to survey the damage.

“If you decide to live on the ocean, you put yourself in harm’s way,” he said philosophically.

For more information on the lighthouse check out this link - it is quite beautiful! http://www.barrierislandparkssociety.org/aboutthelighthouse.html