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Dave Gayler/Superintendent, Charlotte Co. Schools: It is such a wise decision to fortify
your schools and your buildings withstand strong driving winds of a hurricane or a
tornado no question about it. We were pretty sure that we had on our hands
catastrophe the state of Florida in terms of a school system really hadn’t seen.
Hurricane Charley Aug. 13, 2004
Landfall: Punta Gorda, Fla.
It took out 6 of our schools completely we have 20 schools we ended up with that storm
that huge wind damaging 40% of our schools initially.
Jerry Olivo/Deputy Superintendent: When you think of a catastrophic event like
Hurricane Charley what we are looking at behind us is the silver lining at the end of the
day. Being able to rebuild bigger and stronger to withstand any future events.
Rebuilding Stronger FEMA-Florida Grants
$27.7 million Charlotte County Schools
Sally was a fairly new school at the time of the storm just a few years old and was built to
current code didn’t sustain really serious damage but it did sustain some windows
certainly and doors. Well the way that these shutters and the
lightning system ended up here is with the assistance of a FEMA hazard mitigation grant
FEMA-Florida Grants$6.2 million Disaster resistance measures countywide
These shutters are going to keep the really the vast majority of debris from flying into the
building through the window into classroom areas allowing wind and rain to come in. And
of course if you don’t have your doors and windows blowing out then there’s less
opportunity for the pressure coming in to take the roof up and off.
The lighting arrestor system clearly that is helpful as we look at the number of storms we
have the number of lightning storms we have in Florida any given time of the year but most
certainly during the summer.
What we have behind us is the rebuilding of the historic Charlotte high school campus.
So impact resistant window, fastening of the roofing the structure itself in its totality much
better able to adapt to withstand an event and working with our partners at FEMA a
collaborative approach to rebuilding affords us to have a stronger campus at the
end of the day.
Charlie Shinkle, State of Florida Recovery Manager: Charlotte County is definitely going
to fare better from the same strength storm if it comes on shore again. They are built better
today than they were before.
Disaster Resistance Measures 2004 Projects Statewide
$420 million
Robert Ives, FEMA Florida Recovery Director: The state wide effort in FL has prepared you
for future events to minimize the damage to have your critical facilities and structures open
for business as soon as possible and to lessen the brunt of the cost to the
taxpayers of the state.
The sense of comfort is what we have been able to do through things like the FEMA grant
to harden our schools so we’re prepared.
FloridaDisaster.org FEMA.gov