Charley’s path now targets Orlando

Hurricane Charley slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast south of Tampa at 3:45 this afternoon, swelling to a Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, and its path veered to take it directly over Orlando.

At 5 p.m., Hurricane Charley was located 115 miles south-southwest of Orlando, moving toward the north-northeast near 22 mph with maximum sustained winds are near 140 mph with higher gusts. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 25 miles from the center, and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 85 miles.

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“Orlando, the metro area, Disney, all those amusement parks will get hammered pretty good,” said Stacy Stewart, a forecaster with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “It’s like being in an F-1, F-2 tornado for two to three hours.”

“It’s making landfall now,’’ said Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “We’re seeing a tremendous amount of impact.”

No deaths had been reported from areas such as Marco Island but huge amounts of rain and debris were seen, Fugate said.

“We expect to see hurricane force winds moving across the state,’’ he said. “We’re seeing a lot of storm surge. We’re seeing a lot of wind... This is the kind of storm that can do significant damage.”

Gov. Jeb Bush said damage could exceed $15 billion.

As of 2 p.m., Hurricane Charley’s projected path would have it moving northwest across the state through Polk, Osceola, Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties, according to the National Hurricane Center. It could take eight hours to move across the state, exiting around St. Augustine or Daytona Beach.

Charley’s worst winds could be in a 20-mile-wide band as it moves across Florida. The Orlando region could feel the effects within four hours after the storm makes landfall, getting heavy rain, wind and the possibility of tornadoes.

The storm’s projected path would take it directly over Orlando, creating the biggest threat the city has seen in decades, emergency officials said.

“There will be power outages, there will be downed trees, there will be flooding in low-lying areas,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said at a 1:30 p.m. news briefing from the city’s Emergency Operations Center.

Emergency Management Director Manuel Soto said the city could be buffeted by hurricane-force winds for as much as 12 hours, starting in the late afternoon and lasting into the early-morning hours Saturday.

Earlier today, Gov. Jeb Bush again warned coastal residents to take cover.

As of 2 p.m., Hurricane Charley’s projected path would have it making landfall on the Gulf Coast and then moving northwest across the state through Polk, Osceola, Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties, according to the National Hurricane Center.

That projected path would take it directly over the city of Orlando, creating the biggest threat the city has seen in decades, emergency officials said.

“There will be power outages, there will be downed trees, there will be flooding in low-lying areas,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said at a 1:30 p.m. news briefing from the city’s Emergency Operations Center.

Emergency Management Director Manuel Soto said the city could be buffeted by hurricane-force winds up to 100 mph for as much as 12 hours, starting in the late afternoon and lasting into the early-morning hours Saturday.

Officials in Orange and Seminole counties recommended that those who live in mobile homes or who have special needs seek safe shelter. Other residents should remain in their homes.

“This is a very deadly storm that is approaching our beloved state,” Bush said. “If you are in an evacuation area, you need to get to high ground now. There won’t be another alert because it will be too late.”

Officials said the evacuation of coastal and low-lying areas in Charley’s path was going well but that it was impossible to know the precise numbers of people fleeing or choosing to stay behind. The number of people evacuating could surpass the 2 million who fled their homes when Hurricane Floyd struck the Atlantic Coast in 1999, they said.

Just after 2 p.m., Sarasota officials issued a frightening warning to residents. They said the chance to evacuate had passed. The storm was moving too quickly to risk an evacuation. Trying to outrace the storm, said officials, could be “absolutely catastrophic.”

“The only option now,” said Gregg Feagans, chief of emergency management in Sarasota County,”is to hunker down.”Earlier, Sarasota officials had ordered an evacuation of up to 60,000 people. Though Sarasota was hoping to be spared the worst of Charley’s storm surge, it still was expecting winds of 75 to 120 mph.

“We are by no means out of the woods,” said Feagans.

And he acknowledged the storm could shift its track again. “Until this thing no longer has a name,” he said, “it’s like sleeping with rattlesnakes.”

Central Florida officials were preparing for a serious blow.

County officials have urged residents to stay off the roads this afternoon and evening, so incoming Gulf Coast residents can make it to safety more quickly. Beary also asked people to avoid using their cellular telephones during the storm, so communications towers aren’t overburdened.

Lynx officials stopped bus service at 3 p.m. today.

State officials said residents also should avoid the interstate system, if possible. Bush said he may order closed parts of I-75 and I-10.

Orange County Chairman Rich Crotty said emergency workers and public works crews are preparing for the worst.

“There is some evidence that this storm is taking a turn for the worse,” Crotty said.

Crotty signed two executive orders today related to the coming hurricane. The first authorizes emergency expenditures to deal with the storm and its aftermath. The second prohibits price gouging, which is also prohibited under state law.

Business owners found to be gouging consumers can be fined $500 and jailed for 60 days.

“This is an opportunity to define ourselves and our community...in how we interact as neighbors, how we interact as friends and how we interact as a community,” Crotty said. Bush said has spoken with President George W. Bush and has received early approval of disaster funding that will allow small business loans and family assistance.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, Ben Nelson the state meteorologist, added, hurricane trackers have reported another depression that could soon be a tropical storm southeast of Cuba and about five days away from Florida.

“This hurricane season is not starting out very well,” Nelson said. “I’m spinning right now myself.”

Sentinel staff writers Bob Mahlburg, Mark Schleub,Scott Powers and Maya Bell contributed to this report.