Rescuers expect to find "many" fatalities after mobile home parks were devastated by Hurricane Charley's rampage over southwest Florida, US officials said today.
The hurricane levelled houses and snapped trees in half as it raged into the western Florida coast, leaving one million people without power and an expected billion-dollar price tag before moving into the Atlantic today.
A hurricane warning extended from Georgia to the North Carolina-Virginia state line as Charley churned through the ocean, the US National Hurricane Center said. It was expected to reach the South Carolina coast later in the day.
Packing winds of 145 mph (233 kph), Charley was a powerful Category four storm when came ashore yesterday at Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, catching many residents unprepared because of expectations the brunt of the hurricane would hit the coast much farther north.
A woman and a young girl were killed in separate traffic accidents in Florida, and at least three people died in Cuba.
But Mr Bob Carpenter, a spokesman for the Charlotte County emergency management office, said it was too early to know how many people were killed by Charley.
"We just won't know until we can get in there (to the mobile home parks). Obviously we expect to have many (fatalities)," he said.
"I never seen anything like this before," said Mr Victor Rivera as he stood on top of a pile of rubble that used to be the car parts shop where he worked in Port Charlotte.
The storm plowed across central Florida, weakening as it dumped heavy rains on Orlando, home to Disney World, and aimed for the Atlantic. Charley was expected to regain some strength over the water before crossing back onto land in the Carolinas and proceeding through to the north as a tropical storm.
In its wake, overturned boats sat in front of shredded storefronts, power lines dangled in standing water, street signs and billboards were ripped away and palm tree trunks, snapped in half like matchsticks, were wrapped with twisted metal.
Few windows had been boarded up, and most were blown out. Mobile home parks were devastated and 18-wheel tractor-trailers flipped over like toys.
On exclusive Captiva Island, offshore from Punta Gorda, 160 condominiums were totally destroyed and a similar number seriously damaged, the National Weather Service said.
The storm ripped the roof off an emergency shelter in DeSoto County, exposing the thousand people who had sought refuge within to pounding rain and ferocious winds, the service said.
Florida Power & Light said 429,000 customers were left without electricity. Progress Energy Florida said 477,000 people were sitting in the dark.
"This storm has caused a tremendous amount of destruction," said a Progress company spokesman.