Charley devastates Florida Airports

News reports and e-mail are reporting that Orlando Executive and Orlando International were both badly damaged by Hurricane Charley. And closer to the initial landfall, Charlotte County airport in Punta Gorda was nearly destroyed.

One first-hand report on the Cardinal club mailing list reports that at Orlando Executive, a DC-3 was picked up and blown inverted through the hangar doors of a large hangar 300' away. Winds through the now open doors finished the job. Hangar doors blew in on east facing t-hangars, damaging many of the aircraft. An article on SFGate.com reports that 70% of the aircraft at Executive were destroyed.

Other Florida airports were also hit hard. News-Press reports that at Charlotte County Airport, damage could reach $40 Million. Of the 250 based aircraft, only a couple of dozen were flown out of the area, and only one of the remaining aircraft appeared to be undamaged. Newsday reports that at Orlando International, the roofs were blown off 3 terminals, large plate glass windows were blown into the terminals, more than 1000 people spend the night in the airport, and that by Saturday afternoon, 5000 people were stuck in the terminals.