Judging from the long food lines in Punta Gorda and Arcadia, 40 miles inland, the number of people without habitable homes or potable water was significant. Florida officials said that 1.1 million customers statewide were without electricity.
Because major power lines were toppled for miles by the hurricane, Rinehart said, he expects large parts of his city to be without electricity for weeks. "I think you're talking weeks just to get electricity to critical facilities," he said. "I think you may be talking months to get it to other facilities."
President Bush speaks with residents of Punta Gorda, Fla., while assessing damage caused by Hurricane Charley. Bush said federal aid was being rushed to the area.
(Pool Photo Chip Litherland)
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_____Photo Gallery_____
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Hurricane Charley Hits Florida: Hurricane Charley hit Florida on Friday with more force than predicted, leaving thousands homeless.
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Hurricanes Compared: See how Charley compares with major storms over the past 10 years.
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Charley Leaves at Least 13 Dead (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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Old Couch a Lifesaver in Trailer Home (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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For Thousands, Shelters Become Home (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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North Carolina Town Hit Hard Last Year by Isabel Is Luckier This Time (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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Arrival Of Charley More Fizzle Than Drizzle (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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Forecast: Plenty of Activity On the Weather Blog Front (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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Storm Prediction Improving but Not Perfect (The Washington Post, Aug 15, 2004)
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President Vows Rapid Relief in Fla. (The Washington Post, Aug 16, 2004)
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For Devastated County's Retirees, a Paradise Is Lost (The Washington Post, Aug 16, 2004)
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Everything Must Go (The Washington Post, Aug 16, 2004)
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Calm Befalls the Storm (The Washington Post, Aug 16, 2004)
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Emergency shelters in Charlotte and DeSoto counties remained packed with homeless people Sunday.
At DeSoto Middle School in Arcadia, at least 75 people stayed the night in the gymnasium after getting last-minute warnings to evacuate.
"When the people came to get us out of there, it was really too late. It was already looking like hell was coming down," said Dale Jenkins, 23, who lives south of Arcadia in a mobile home. He said that the only warning of what was ahead came at 4 p.m. and that he barely had time to find shelter.
Christopher Proctor, 19, told a similar story of a last-minute dash for safety. In his case, he went with his wife and two children to a civic center near the town. Then, as Charley's winds raged, the civic center's roof caved in and rain flooded onto more than 100 displaced families, Proctor said.
Officials moved the families to DeSoto High School. In a matter of hours, that building's roof also opened up with rain, so officials once again displaced the displaced, moving them to the middle school nearby, where Proctor stood in line Sunday at a Salvation Army food truck.
"I have absolutely no place to go," he said, standing with his family. "We don't have clothes, no nothing. Nothing at all."
Roads leading into Charlotte County were crisscrossed with downed power lines Sunday, and utility poles that had been snapped in half littered the marshes north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Utility repair crews and trucks with gear to mulch downed trees moved into the area from as far away as Ohio.
The Charlotte County emergency operations center, near ground zero of Charley's destruction, was without working phone lines until Sunday afternoon, county spokesman Carl Fowler said. Large sections of the center, at the sheriff's office, were still without electricity Sunday, and a gaping hole in the roof let sunlight penetrate a central corridor.
The county's three hospitals remained closed because of "structural issues with the roofs," Sallade said. Officials set up a temporary morgue equipped with refrigerated trucks to preserve bodies. But county officials said their worst fears had not materialized: "If the toll is what I believe I'm hearing, with a storm of that magnitude . . . it's a miracle," he said.
Maj. John Davenport, chief deputy of the Charlotte County sheriff's office, said search-and-rescue crews finished looking for the dead and injured in the county's mobile home parks Sunday. He said they began Sunday evening searching other residential areas. "We have no idea as far as the amount of people who may be missing," he said.
Even amid so many scenes of loss, some found signs of hope. Sacred Heart Church in Punta Gorda suffered extensive damage, its stained-glass windows blown out, the grand piano flooded. When the Rev. Jerome Kaywell surveyed the scene Saturday morning, he saw an inch of water on the floor, steel pipes and chunks of wooden beams scattered. But up on the altar, the golden tabernacle rested untouched, the blessed sacrament still safe inside. And beside it was a red candle, its flame still flickering.
"It was dry as toast," Kaywell said, still marveling a day later after holding Mass in a community center across from the church. "My message was the greatness of our community is being born through this suffering," he said. "The greatness is love."
Finkel reported from Washington. Staff writer Ceci Connolly in Punta Gorda contributed to this report.
