Charlotte County residents start to put lives back together after Hurricane Ian

Charlotte County residents started to put their lives back together on Friday, without power but thankful that the catastrophic storm had passed.

Nearly all intersections along U.S. 41 — from Port Charlotte to Punta Gorda — lacked power, as did most stores and gas stations.

But at the Wawa at Port Charlotte's Midway Boulevard, a large generator powered the fuel pumps and the cash registers inside. A line of cars stretched more than mile, where some people said they had been waiting more than three hours for fuel at about 9:30 a.m. Friday.

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Amanda Green and Jimmy Walsh said they got in the line not far from the front, before it stacked up behind them. Still, Green said she had been waiting for an hour and half to fill up her tank.

Dozens of other people had forsaken the long line, but instead parked at a nearby church and walked to a pump to fill gas cans.

Homes also sustained severe damage, although as in Venice and Sarasota, the predicted storm surge did not appear to be the cause. Instead, intense wind damage could be seen on every street.

The homes are in the center of the original Port Charlotte development, many older than 50 years, and not far from Charlotte Harbor.

Selena Benitez, 16, hauled Banyan tree branches through her front yard at the corner of Flora Lane and Conway Boulevard.

"Just doing the best I can," she said as her mother watched her tug the large limbs to the street.

Julia Hirtzoel, said her daughter just earned the rank of Star Scout in the Scouts BSA and is working toward Eagle Scout. Hirtzoel, who is also her daughter's Scout leader, said she always wanted to be a Boy Scout, but when she was younger they didn't accept girls.

She said in the coming days, she and her three children will certainly put the scouting skills to work.

"We're used to camp cooking and being in the woods," she said.

100,800 Charlotte County customers of Florida Power and Light were without power

She's likely right, as 100,800 out of 126,690 Charlotte County customers of Florida Power and Light were without power on Friday night at 7 p.m.

Even more indicative of the widespread damage to the county's electrical infrastructure, two of the three hospitals that receive power from the largest power company in Florida did not have electricity, according to FPL's website.

In total, 23 of the 25 critical infrastructure facilities in Charlotte County were without power on Friday night.

Across Conway Boulevard, Tommy Yamashita also cleaned his yard of branches with his son and daughter. He's a single father working two jobs in Port Charlotte, but he lives paycheck to paycheck.

While he's not worried yet about his finances, each day the power is off could take money out of his pocket.

Still, he said he feels lucky as three large trees all avoided crashing into his home.

Jim Perron was not so fortunate.

Strong gusts blew the pool enclosure — still attached to the roof — into the front yard of the rental property he owned in Port Charlotte.

He said he has owned the home for about three years but couldn't get insurance because the roof was old, and the house was in a flood zone.

"I'm going to have to tear the house down," he said. "To bring this back to code, it's going to be so expensive. And it still is in a flood plain."

While he was speaking with a reporter, two men from San Antonio, Texas, approached Perron about putting tarps over the wide-open roof.

Colby Little, of TX Storm Protection Services LLC, quoted Perron a price of $1.50 per square foot to install a tarp on the property. He said that he's heard some tarp companies were charging nearly double to do the same work.

Still, because of the damage, Perron was hesitant to cover the house with tarp.

Back on U.S. 41, farther south toward Punta Gorda, three men from Houston, Texas, with a trailer full of generators had parked outside another long line of cars at a gas station that had power.

A man who only identified himself as Gilbert said a few years ago several Floridians had traveled to Houston to help out after a hurricane. He said they paid $500 for each of the generators and sold them to people for $750 to cover costs of transporting them from Houston.

Mike Destazio lives on Bedford Drive in Charlotte County and bought one of the generators from the back of the trailer. He seemed grateful to be able to keep his refrigerator powered, even if the cost had been marked up by 50%.

"I got a house sitting over there with a refrigerator and I've got to keep it cold, you know," he said.

He said he believes it could be possible that power is out in the area for a long time, and if that happens, the generator will be worth every dollar.

"I don't know if they're overcharging," he said, "but, it's worth the $750."

Charlotte County residents can seek additional storm resource information at COADFL.org or sign up for text messages by texting CHARCOCares to 888777 for information on critical supply distribution points or other storm related information.

Charlotte County Public Information Officer Brian Gleason cautioned people to continue to keep safety in mind and be aware of downed power lines and trees leaning on structures.

“Just because because a tree has fallen, doesn’t mean that it’s done falling,” he said.

He also said to be particularly careful on ladders cleaning up storm damage.

“More people get hurt on ladders than anything else,” he said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has cited a figure of 12 people who have died due to Ian. But Gleason referred all questions about fatalities to the Charlotte County Medical Examiner’s Office. However, a phone number for the office provided by the county staff on Friday afternoon produced only a dial tone.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Hurricane Ian: Charlotte County residents put lives back together