Hurricane leaves trail of devastation in Florida

Debbie Malloy and her son Dell Zurcher look upon the damage behind her house after tornadoes from Tropical Storm Bonnie touched down in North Carolina Friday in Rocky Point, North Carolina. At least 3 people were killed and more than two dozen injured as buildings also were damaged and power supplies were disrupted. PHOTO: AFP

The hurricane ripped the roof off the civic center being used as an emergency shelter for 1,500 people. No one was injured, Casale said, but rescuers struggled to reach critically injured people elsewhere.

In nearby Port Charlotte, the sheriff's office sustained a partial roof collapse, a regional medical center lost primary and backup power and damage was widespread.

"I have never seen anything like it," said Katherine McMahon, owner of a local bed and breakfast.

Earlier, HurricanDaylight revealed widespread devastation in Florida yesterday after Hurricane Charley raked across the state, leaving an unknown number of dead, half a million without electricity and "mass damage" in its wake.

With three confirmed deaths in Florida and four in Cuba Friday, the death toll was on the rise yesterday with US media reporting an unspecified number of fatalities at a mobile home park in Punta Gorda, a bayside city on Florida's west coast taken by surprise when the massive hurricane came to shore further south than expected.

The town's emergency manager Wayne Sallade tearfully told CNN he had ordered 60 body bags.

National guardsmen were guarding the site, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency had taken control of medical care in the town after its hospital shut down, the network said.

"Punta Gorda appears to be ground zero," said Craig Fugate, the state's director of emergency management.

But many more communities were slammed Friday when Charley blew across the state packing winds of up to 235 kilometers (145 miles) per hour.

Television showed images of shredded palm trees and collapsed buildings surrounded by crumpled metal.

"We have a major effort underway related to search and rescue and it extends from the coast well into the interior of our state," Dr John Agwunobe of the Florida State Department of Health said.

Asked for an assessment of casualties and damage, Linda Long of the Florida Division of Emergency Management told AFP: "We're waiting for the sun to come up."

A weakened Charley was churning over the Atlantic Ocean early Saturday, heading northeast at 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour, with sustained winds of 137 kilometers (85 miles) per hour.

A hurricane warning was in effect along the southeastern United States from Georgia to Virginia and officials said Charley was likely to smack into South Carolina sometime Saturday.

Forecasters warned of drenching rains, potential flash floods and tornadoes along the eastern seaboard of the United States.

"The early indications are that this storm has had a devastating impact on our state," Florida Governor Jeb Bush told a press conference after the hurricane made landfall on the state's west coast on Friday.

Officials urged at least 1.4 million Floridians to flee ahead of the storm -- one of the largest peacetime evacuations in US history. The mandatory evacuation orders however were widely ignored.

Many who did flee Tampa and communities on Florida's Gulf Coast found that the storm deviated from its expected path and hit the cities where they had taken refuge -- such as Orlando and Daytona Beach.

President George W. Bush, the Florida governor's brother, declared the southeastern state eligible for disaster relief assistance.

"I have declared an emergency and the process is now in place to aid, provide federal aid to those who may be affected by this hurricane," Bush said in a statement late Friday from the northwestern United States, where he is campaigning.

"We ask God's blessing on those who were in the path of that hurricane."

Charley is already Florida's worst natural disaster since Hurricane Andrew ripped through the south Miami-Dade region in 1992, state officials said. e Charley battered Cuba for more than two hours, tearing roofs off houses, ripping up trees and cutting power. Four men died, civilian defense officials said. One drowned, one was killed by a falling tree and two were killed when buildings collapsed.