ARCADIA, Fla. — People who live in Arcadia can remember exactly where they were when Hurricane Charley made landfall 20 years ago.
"Everybody was saying the Turner Center was the place to go to as an evacuation shelter," said Arcadia resident Elizavet Coronado.
Coronado told Arcadia Community Correspondent Victoria Scott she remembers it like it was yesterday.
You can watch Victoria's full report here:
"I noticed my husband was staring at the upper corner of the ceiling, and I followed his gaze," she said. "You could see where the edge of the roof was starting to lift up."
However, Coronado told Scott it wasn't long before things really took a turn for the worse.
"It was scary," she said. "I don't know if it was a beam, or a two-by-four, or a pipe, what it was. It came crashing through the ceiling and landed on the concrete and shattered. All chaos broke lose at that time."
Coronado said people ran for their lives.
"It was dark. The power went out. So many of us were crammed together in that little back kitchen area."
Coronado said she didn't know where her family went for a period of time. She thought it could be life or death in that very moment. The mother was also eight-months pregnant.
"What's to stop something from grabbing us?" Coronado said. "I still didn't know where my kids [were.] I was still missing one of my children. Just seeing the mass amount of people, I didn’t think that everyone would make it out.”
However, she said she got through it.
"It was an experience," Coronado said. "I can say I've lived through that, and we've learned some lessons. We know not to take storms at face value anymore."
Coronado is currently the Library Manager at the DeSoto County Library.
