Were Punta Gorda waterfront houses flooded from"Charlie" (sales, insurance)

[JERSEY MAN]

Hi all, thinking of possibly relocating to a Punta Gorda waterfront home. Going through threads here and on the net. Did many homes on the water get flooded with the storm surge from Hurricane Charley. You guys seem like a friendly bunch on here and I was hoping for some feed back. Thanking everyone in advance.

[daFrogMan]

Joisey, by my understanding there wasn't any flooding from the surge. Charley passed so quick it didn't have time to build. When Debby came by earlier this summer off the West Coast we had very high tides with beach erosion. Our seawall was about 1' above the high tide mark. I don't think any flooding took place unless it was a low lying area such as the walk in Punta Gorda.
If you go here
Record Search
and pick an address, you can change the map view to see post Charley via satellite. Lots of blue tarps.
Others that were here will fill you in more. Good tool also to see the sales history of a prop you're looking at. Welcome, maybe!

[Harbor Hopper]

Most of the home flooding was due to destruction of roofs, which allowed the heavy rain to free-flow into the homes. My next door neighbor had this happen. It took about 3 weeks to re-roof and replace the drywall in 100% of his 2,300 sqft house, along with some new carpet and tile in certain rooms.

[JERSEY MAN]

Thanks guys, is the PGI area or Burnt Isle the older section?

[mrs.cool]

Originally Posted by daFrogMan

Joisey, by my understanding there wasn't any flooding from the surge. Charley passed so quick it didn't have time to build. When Debby came by earlier this summer off the West Coast we had very high tides with beach erosion. Our seawall was about 1' above the high tide mark. I don't think any flooding took place unless it was a low lying area such as the walk in Punta Gorda.
If you go here
Record Search
and pick an address, you can change the map view to see post Charley via satellite. Lots of blue tarps.
Others that were here will fill you in more. Good tool also to see the sales history of a prop you're looking at. Welcome, maybe!

Thanks for providing this link. Very interesting. I can't view the map though, I get an error message that makes no sense to me. Oh well.

[TamRE]

Here is a link that will give you some information on flooding in Punta Gorda.
City of Punta Gorda Flood Facts - http://www.ci.punta-gorda.fl.us/depts/growthmgmt/floodfacts.html
Hurricane Charley did not create a huge storm surge as originally predicted or that it could have. Rains caused more flooding than the storm surge.

[Big House]

According to some people, a storm surge could hit PGI, but it is very unlikely. The reason being - even the older elevations are much higher than many many surrounding areas in SWFL. So those areas would obsorb and flood a tremendous amount of water long before any flooding would be possible here in PGI. We did not flood during Charlie (but the storm surge from Charlie went away from PGI), and during Debby although the wind direction held the tide high here - other areas (mostly low lying areas) flooded some. Nothing sever by any standards.

Some people that say they have studied storms for years, say there are reasons that it can not flood here - but I am not in that camp by any means. I would never not have flood insurance coverage. Even though, I've been told that I'm wasting my money.

All I have is hearsay, and opinion, and don't make any other assurances of any kind. I think you can hear equally strong positions (valid or not) on both points of view.

[daFrogMan]

Originally Posted by mrs.cool

Thanks for providing this link. Very interesting. I can't view the map though, I get an error message that makes no sense to me. Oh well.

I just checked and it works in IE 8. Are you using something different? Also, there is a disclaimer you have to accept to get to the map.

If you can, paste the error if you can.

BTW, when I do a record search for the scans, I ALWAYS get an error and have to try again to get it to work. Been that way for a couple years now.

Or do you get the initial map and after making a change on the right is when it goes 'poof'?

Cheers!

[HarborRat]

From what I hear tides were drawn out to very low levels during Charlie, not in.

I've talked to many old neighbors that have lived in the area for 30+ years, none have ever seen the canal water reach the houses, or even come close. I own my home so I opted not to even get flood insurance.

As said above the houses with water damage after Charlie were caused by leaky or missing roofs. You can do permit searches on the county website that will show the date the roof permits were pulled or completed, most houses in the area got new roofs. If you see a clean-up or mold removal type permit then you have to worry. Not all permits will show up though, and many jobs were done without permits at that time.

[Endless Summer]

Also if you look at a map of the area, PG is kind of up river with some barrier islands protecting it.
I did see street flooding after Debby passed a month ago. Don't know about houses flooding but I would imaging some of the older homes on street level must have seen water.