PUNTA GORDA, Fla., Aug. 14 -- Hurricane Charley left a swath of devastation across southwestern Florida Saturday, causing at least 15 deaths and billions of dollars worth of damage statewide before the storm swung into the Atlantic and struck the Carolinas.
At least 10 of the Florida deaths were reported in Charlotte County, which includes Punta Gorda. Wayne Sallade, the county's director of emergency management, said he expected the toll to rise, but not as much as some officials had feared.
Emily Waller and her 10-month-old daughter, Alexandra King, both of Bradenton, Fla., take shelter from Hurricane Charley on Friday at Glades Central Community High School in Belle Glade, Fla.
(Jim Rassol - AP)
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"I would hope that it would be limited to dozens, if that," Sallade said, according to the Associated Press. With the area inaccessible to ambulances, Charlotte County deputies were standing guard over bodies, the agency said.
As the hurricane made its way northward, President Bush scheduled a trip to Florida Sunday to survey the damage, the White House announced. Bush declared a major disaster in Florida, where his brother Jeb Bush is governor, just two hours after Hurricane Charley struck on Friday.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president wants to see the damage for himself and "make sure people affected by Charley are getting the assistance they need." McClellan made the announcement as Bush was preparing to fly from Seattle to Iowa on the last leg of a five-day campaign trip to the West.
After sweeping across Florida, Charley headed across open ocean in the Atlantic before hitting land for the second time. Considerably weakened but still packing 75-mph winds, the storm struck the largely evacuated Grand Strand resort region of South Carolina.
At around midday Saturday, the hurricane then moved into North Carolina, heading north-northeast at 28 mph on its way toward Virginia, the National Weather Service reported. Forecasters said Charley could bring more flooding and tornadoes to North Carolina, which is still suffering the effects of Tropical Storm Bonnie. Three people in the state were killed Friday by a tornado that raged in Bonnie's wake.
Hurricane Charley had slammed Florida with unexpectedly strong winds that caused widespread damage, the worst of it apparently in Punta Gorda, a community on Florida's Gulf Coast that is home to many retirees.
"I thought I was going to die," said Mindy Lyles, 39, a bartender who rode out the storm in her mobile home. Like many trailers in Punta Gorda, hers was trashed by the hurricane, leaving her homeless.
"The roof was jumping," she said. "It took the side off like a can opener."
Also left homeless was Ginny Fay, an 88-year-old retiree.
"Have you ever seen such a mess?" she asked, surveying the damage in a large retirement trailer park complex as volunteer crews swept broken glass and debris across the street. "I do not know what we are going to do, where we are going to go. I don't know anything."
Every trailer in the park was in some stage of destruction. What used to be her roof was twisted like a ribbon, blocking the doorway. Her orange tree, which she tended each day and called her little child, was splintered, with oranges rotting in the hot sun on her driveway. Streets throughout the complex were littered with pine and palm trees.
Punta Gorda Police Capt. Jason Ciaschini said Saturday morning that authorities were still trying to determine the number of people who were killed by the hurricane.
