Hurricane Charley leaves trail of destruction

Hurricane Charley left a trail of destruction in Florida, where officials today reported a “significant loss of life”, as the slightly weakened storm barrelled on toward the South Carolina coast.

The Category 4 storm was stronger than expected when it hit the western coast of Florida on Friday afternoon, pummelling the coast with wind reaching 233 kph (145 mph) and a surge of sea water of four to five meters (13-15 feet).

There were a “number of fatalities” at a mobile home park in Charlotte County said Wayne Sallade, the county’s director of emergency management. Sallade said there were confirmed deaths in at least three other areas in the county. He did not have an estimate on the number of fatalities and said it may take days to get a final toll.

Hundreds of people were unaccounted for in Charlotte County and thousands were homeless, Sallade said. He compared the devastation with 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, which was directly blamed for the deaths of 26 people, most in South Florida. Extensive damage was also reported on exclusive Captiva Island, a narrow strip of sand west of Fort Myers.

“It’s Andrew all over again,” he said. “We believe there’s significant loss of life.”

There were three confirmed storm-related deaths elsewhere in Florida. Earlier, the storm killed three people in Cuba and one in Jamaica.

The federal government was sending a 25-member mortuary team to help process bodies.

After crossing Florida and moving back over open water, the slightly weakened Charley was bearing down on the South Carolina coast today. Roads were clogged during the night as tourists and residents of South Carolina’s Grand Strand - beaches and high-dollar homes and hotels – heeded a mandatory evacuation order.

At 8am EDT (12 noon Irish time), the centre of the storm was in the Atlantic Ocean about 35 miles (55 kilometres south-south-west of Charleston, South Carolina, and moving north-north-east at 28 mph (45 kph). Forecasters expected Charley to increase in speed. Its maximum sustained wind speed was near 85 mph (137 kph) with higher gusts.

President George W Bush declared a major disaster area in Florida, making federal money available to Charlotte, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota counties. One million customers were reported without power statewide.

Some 31 trailer parks suffered major damage in Charlotte County, said Bob Carpenter, a Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office spokesman. He said teams were sent to each park to search for bodies and survivors, but getting into them was difficult.

“We just couldn’t get the vehicles in – there is so much debris,” he said.

Three hospitals in Charlotte County sustained significant damage, Sallade said, and officials at Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda said they were evacuating all patients today.

More than 200 ambulances – many from south-east Florida – were organised to transfer patients to other hospitals in Orlando, Sarasota, Tampa and Lee County.

“We really have to get the patients out of here. This place just isn’t safe,” said Peggy Greene, chief nursing officer. She said windows were blown out, part of the roof was blown off, and there was no power or phone service.

Among those seeking treatment was Marty Rietveld, showered with broken glass when the sliding glass door at his home was smashedby a neighbour’s roof that blew off. Rietveld broke his leg, and his future son-in-law suffered a punctured leg artery.

“We are moving,” said Rietveld’s daughter, Stephanie Rioux. “We are going out of state.”