So, today being the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Charley’s landfall made me wonder how Punta Gorda is doing. I remember sitting at home that day, certain we were completely screwed and then feeling both thrilled and bummed that it took a detour just south of here. Sucked for Punta Gorda, but hey, at least it didn’t hit St. Pete, right?

Well, in what is sadly unshocking news, the largely poor and historically black east Punta Gorda is still in bad shape 3 years later.

The struggle to rebuild in this historic neighborhood illustrates the particular devastation that hits poorer communities after a hurricane. Families here have the lowest incomes in the city. Few homes had hurricane shutters or other protection against the storm. Many residents lacked insurance or enough savings to rebuild.

And while millions of dollars in government aid has been pledged, most of the money is going to rebuild public or low-income housing projects, not to individual homeowners.

Three years later, what is left are promises and blueprints for improvement, but also the reality of a neighborhood that is nearly the same ghost town it was the day after Hurricane Charley hit.

Now, you might read that and think money should indeed go first to public and low-income housing projects, after all they probably need it more than individual homeowners. The screwed up part is that “first” in this case means now, a full 3 years later. And how about the wealthier folks, surely they too are suffering?

In the waterfront Punta Gorda Isles neighborhood, “everyone has a new house because of the storm,” said Charlotte County Realtor Lisa Hamlin.

Something is seriously not right, and the truly frightening part is that I imagine it would be 100 times worse here in St. Pete based on the number of people packed into the city.