Storm shatters lives, homes

PUNTA GORDA —  A garage-sale geisha painting, held against a shattered door, was all that kept Hurricane Charley from ripping through Cesar Pares’ mobile home.

“It sounded deadly, like a killer thing,” he said.

For his two elderly neighbors, it was.

Pares, 59, went to check on invalids Gordon and Joann Hawkins and their son Richard immediately after the storm tore through their Crystal Lake neighborhood Friday night.

“But I couldn’t find them, or their house,” he said.

The modular- and mobile-home neighborhood looked “like a shock wave from an atomic bomb” had cut through it.

The gentle former rock guitarist -- who bears an uncanny resemblance to his musical idol, Jerry Garcia -- began frantically searching through the scattered shreds and rubble, spread out for hundreds of yards into the surrounding woods.

“I was trying to figure out where their house went while calling their names,” Pares said. “Someone called back -- but it was another neighbor couple who started looking for them, too.”

Frantic that the Hawkinses and their home had disappeared, Pares called 911. But emergency-rescue teams were not yet being dispatched.

Pares’ daughter, a nurse, arrived to check on him; she too joined the search.

After more than an hour of hunting in the dark and rain, they found Richard Hawkins.

“He’d been blown out of his house and across the street, into the closet of another house,” Pares said.

Hawkins, thought to be in his early 60s, had a head gash. But he was lucid, and asking for his parents.

“I had to tell him we couldn’t find them.

“He said the last thing he knew, they were all sitting in the living room watching television, and the wind picked him up and blew him across the street,” Pares said.

After tending to Richard Hawkins, Pares and other searchers continued looking for his parents, who were in their 80s.

They discovered that most of their home, wheels, frame and all, had been blown about 50 yards to the north. Across the street, it was resting on its side against another home.

They found Gordon and Joann Hawkins 50 yards in the opposite direction, in thick piles of debris near an upended old tow truck.

“I found Gordon’s wheelchair, and then I saw a leg sticking out underneath it. His arm was broken in three or four places, and he was dead,” Pares said.

Nearby, atop another mound of rubble composed in large part of pieces of their lives, was Joann Hawkins.

“They were good people, here for 20 years. When I first moved in, Richard came over and offered his help anytime I needed it.

“They always were there in rains or floods, so that’s why I tried to help them,” Pares said.

Richard Hawkins was taken to a hospital by emergency- service personnel. His condition was not known Saturday.

“I told him that he could come back and stay with me and my wife,” Pares said. “He gave up his life to take care of his parents. He would bathe and feed them, and I admired him for that.”

Helping his neighbor recover is something Pares really hopes he gets a chance to do.

After serving four years in Vietnam, recovering from drug-and-alcohol addictions and, now, surviving a hurricane:

“I’m still here, so the Lord must have another purpose for me to serve.”

Wes Smith can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-5672. Jason Garcia can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-5198.