2004 Trifecta: 20th Anniversary of the Polk County Hurricanes

[@polksheriff]

Excellent compilation - thanks for letting us be part of this!

[@Blessed2bFresh]

You sir are someone who needs a higher office (if wanted) YOU are a beacon that gives hope. I left FL after 34 years in 2014 and I still have family there but if I move back.... It'll be PC

[@Cooscoop]

I was 13 in winter haven and it was so scary but we made it through

[@KAdams-z2f]

Watching this brought back lots of memories. I remember it well.

[@tomdaly6768]

Paul Womble and Billy Abernathy have made a HUGE impact on the growth of emergency management professionals in the State of Florida. They were exceptional mentors to me and I thank you both.

[@Bartowham1]

Bev and I just watched this video. What a great job by the people at PGTV putting this together. It's quite a reminder of what we went through as a county.

[@Starscreamf15]

I live in a mobile home park in Lake Wales and my weather man of choice was Tom Terry. I remember that we weren't going to evacuate but Tom said he didn't believe it was going to come in where other weather originations were saying and then he laid out his path and why he thought it and I don't recall exactly what he said but just his conviction on this and his explanation made total sense. I got scared and I remember standing up from the desk and saying we gotta get out now so we scrambled to get all the animals together (I'm in the front yard with one of my pet Silkies (breed of chicken) looking at a black wall of clouds coming in and a funnel cloud trying to drop putting her in a kennel and just my mood or vibe or something cause all 3 of them went dead quiet and super meek and hunkered down when they were out in the kennel. Animals know things) and 4 vehicles squared away with only 2 drivers (taking a guess on where to park the other two we chose to leave to try and minimize any potential flying debris damage), grab the most important stuff and we left. Unfortunately we had to go further into Charley's path to evacuate and went to Homeland into a house that had withstood Donna. As we got partially settled we turned it to Tom again and it's like 4:15 about and he said where you're at at 5pm is where you have to stay to hunker down. It was right about this time we realized we left the gun. Had our place been destroyed and someone had found it we would have been liable. I told this in another video about all this last week, but let me tell you, when there's no cars and you ignore traffic lights and speed limits and you're driving some early 70s Ford flavored American Muscle you can get from Homeland to the Waverly side of LW back to Homeland in 45 minutes about (I just got a flashback to that. When we pulled up to the trailer, well I slide into the yard, I yelled, "3minutes!" And we're grabbing other needed items beyond the firearm) . 👍 We pulled back into the driveway at Homeland a few minutes after 5 and the weather we endured coming back and just getting back into the house from leaving the car was incredible. Charley was incredible. Francis was nothing and Jeanne was just nasty. Numb is the best way to describe it after Jeanne (storm #3) came through. We went to our friends place in Homeland all three times and after it was all over everyone's just going around shell shocked. That's another way to describe it too. I think everyone was like that for some weeks afterwards too.

[@phlogistanjones2722]

And HERE we are after Milton 2024/10/11 with another big storm that came through and beat the dickens out of Polk. The track from Tampa Bay , NE to Orlando went right through the same area these did in 2004. Just south of Winter Haven pretty much through Lake Wales. Bad as it was it could have been worse. Twenty years it has been and it never gets "easy". Peaceful Skies

[@Cookiebetathetapi]

Great job PGTV!

[@josephnieves4068]

My mother went through all three of these hurricanes when she was pregnant with me

[@benwil1715]

Ya know, hurricane season here in lake Wales is a secret fear of mine(or rogue tornado..."knock on wood"(I don't think many or any homeowners have a basement underground here on top the scrub).. but 2 years ago the wind had me and "all" my four cats jump on my bed,and we huddled kinda like thinking we were on a safety raft,and I had to literally move all my furniture against my windows,cause we all got so scared how violent it got..Then the power went out!!... We were sitting ducks,I was not prepared,I couldn't find a workable flashlight,my cats were quiet and we just stayed on our imaginary life raft(my bed!)... I remember praying as their ain't no nonbelievers in a foxhole quote crossed my mind!!!....

[@rmf176]

It will be quite interesting to see how it goes with another big one or some back to backs with so many people here now, much more land developments.... Good video .... Would have been nice to see actual more damage, flooding and empty shelves to drive the point home.... Generator & heavy duty extension cords was the best investment I made after 2004 for hurricane supplies.

[@LuisMendezRealtor]

can you reupload this without the whale sound in the background its so annoying