For many people, the idea of a solid timber home has been a lifelong dream. Nearly 30 years ago, we purchased a lot on the Gulf of Mexico on a remote and nearly deserted barrier island in SW Florida. Our plan was to escape the cold winds of Chicago and retire in sunny Florida. With a house that sits roughly 30 yards off the Gulf of Mexico, the ability to withstand hurricane force winds was a big factor in the design of our home. After extensive research, we chose a home by IHC not only for its beauty, but for its strength and durability.
We completed our IHC home, a modified “Leeward” model, on Little Gasparilla Island back in 1985. For almost 20 years, though, we were spared the fury of Mother Nature and we became quite complacent about tropical windstorms. “Hurricanes just don’t hit here,” we jokingly told our worried friends each hurricane season. We were eventually to be proven quite wrong.
Early summer of 2004 had been a relatively calm year for tropical hurricanes in SW Florida. The month of August changed all that, with 7 named storms, four hurricanes and three MAJOR hurricanes. Hurricane Charley — the deadliest of them all — slammed into the Charlotte Harbor area on Friday the 13th – we should have known that day would be a bad omen! We were antique dealers and were doing an outdoor antique show in Maine. Friends of our daughter from Chicago were vacationing in our house, enjoying the extremely warm Gulf waters.
As Charley was forming in the Caribbean, we told our daughter’s friends to just ride out the storm. “Don’t worry, it won’t hit the island”….we again joked. As Charley crossed the mountainous terrain of western Cuba, forecasters relaxed a bit as the relatively small storm weakened considerably. But their concern deepened, as Charley rapidly crossed Cuba, regained strength very quickly and aimed its sights at Florida. Forecasters were warning residents in Tampa and St. Petersburg to consider evacuation. The storm track showed the storm making dead aim toward Tampa….so our house guests continued to enjoy the warm water and unusually big waves. We listened to radio reports in Maine – along with phone contact from friends watching the Weather Channel – and were abruptly told that the storm had done two completely unexpected things…it had quickly and shockingly escalated to a category 4 storm and – even worse – it had made an abrupt right hand turn and was headed directly for Little Gasparilla Island!
A last-minute mandatory evacuation order was issued for the island, and our friends quickly put up plywood over our front windows, packed up their belongings and headed for a storm shelter on the mainland. Hurricane Charley slammed into the Charlotte Harbor area as a strong category 4 hurricane with devastating winds of 150 mph, and a storm surge of nearly 15 feet.
We listened to the news from Maine, in a state of shock, wondering if we even had a house to return to. As reporters flooded into the area, reports of the devastation were horrifying. Over 12,000 homes were completely destroyed, many on barrier islands such as ours where the brunt of the storm hit. Damage was estimated at over 12 billion dollars and eventually exceeded 15 billion dollars.
As we started the 3-day drive home from Maine, we wondered what we would find….broken windows, a missing roof, a water-filled home – or perhaps no home at all? As we entered Charlotte County, we were shocked to see trailer parks completely gone – nothing bigger than a 2×4 remained. Thousands of trees were completely defoliated and snapped in half like toothpicks.
There was no power anywhere, and long lines for ice and water. Almost every other house was missing a roof, or part of a roof….neighborhoods were a virtual sea of blue tarps. Elsewhere, houses were just completely missing. We were physically sick at the devastation. We finally made it to the island with trepidation, expecting to see our dream house in shambles. Imagine our relief — and our complete surprise — when not only was the house intact, but there was absolutely no damage at all!
Careful inspection revealed that, in fact one screen on the front porch had blown out! We had always bragged to neighbors about the strength of our house…Showed them with pride the construction and the beautiful warmth of the cedar interior…but now we could literally tell people that this house withstood a Category 4 hurricane! Bringing our IHC home all the way from Washington State to Florida twenty years ago caused our friends and neighbors on the island to speculate that we must have been crazy! Hurricane Charley forever changed the way we all view approaching storms, but it has also given us a newfound appreciation for the unique construction of our IHC home!