Hurricane Donna hits Punta Gorda in September, 1960

On Saturday, September 10, 1960, Hurricane Donna whipped into Punta Gorda leaving 12 people injured, 300 homeless, and millions of dollars in property damage in the Charlotte County area according to St. Petersburg Times of the following Monday.  The storm reached winds of 120 miles an hour,  

Parts of the roof of Sallie Jones Elementary were ripped off, major damage was done to the Charlotte Shopping Center and the cabanas in the Municipal Park were destroyed.  The iconic photo from the time was that of the steeple of the First Presbyterian Church tilted in half,

- Theresa Murtha 

Hurricane Irma Now Part of Punta Gorda History

History evolves every day.  And now another powerful storm has impacted our area and inscribed itself on our historic records.  Although Punta Gorda was spared the damage other local communities have experienced, we did deal with the trauma of threatening winds, potential life-threatening surge and evacuations.   We witnessed our harbor roll out to sea and our downtown flood with deep water.

It's important to keep records on what has happened here -- the bad and the good.  Therefore the History Center is requesting that you help us document and preserve a record of this hurricane.  If you took pictures during the storm or of our main streets during the storm, we request that you share them with us.  We will put them on our History cloud and preserve them as part of our community memory.

See above the photo of a Hurricane that impacted Punta Gorda years ago.