The worst hurricane to hit Florida since Andrew a dozen years ago left at least three people dead, caused widespread damage to oceanfront homes and trailer parks and knocked out power to a million customers.
The death toll was expected to rise as early reports indicated there had been other casualties.
Hurricane Charley's eye passed directly over Punta Gorda, which took a heavy toll Friday. The town of 15,000 on Charlotte Harbor was left without power, and at least 40 people were injured.
"It looks like a war zone -- power lines down everywhere, street signs, pieces of roofs blown off, huge trees uprooted," said Buddy Martin, managing editor of the Charlotte Sun. "Everywhere you looked there was just devastation."
Extensive damage was also reported on Captiva Island, a narrow strip of sand west of Fort Myers.
US 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, including all of Hardee County and Punta Gorda.
The Category 4 storm was stronger than expected when the eye reached the mainland Friday afternoon at Charlotte Harbor, pummeling the coast with winds reaching 233kph and a surge of sea water up to 4.5m.
Charley was forecast to spread sustained winds of about 65kph to 95kph across inland portions of eastern North Carolina and to dump 8cm to 15cm of rain beginning yesterday morning, forecasters said. Governor Mike Easley declared a state of emergency.
In South Carolina, roads were clogged on Friday night as tourists and residents of the state's Grand Strand -- beaches and high-dollar homes and hotels -- heeded a mandatory evacuation order.
Governor Mark Sanford had urged voluntary evacuation earlier Friday.
At Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda, 40 people had sought treatment for injuries received during the storm.
The hospital was so badly damaged that patients were trans-ferred to other hospitals.
"We can't keep patients here," said the hospital's chief executive officer, Josh Putter. "Every roof is damaged, lots of water damage, half our windows are blown out."
Showered with glass
Among those seeking treatment was Marty Rietveld, showered with broken glass when the sliding glass door at his home was smashed by a neighbor'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."
At least 20 patients with storm injuries were reported at a hospital in Fort Myers.
A crash on Interstate 75 in Sarasota County killed one person, and a wind gust caused a truck to collide with a car in Orange County, killing a young girl. A man who stepped outside his house to smoke a cigarette died when a banyan tree fell on him in Fort Myers, authorities said.
At the Charlotte County Airport, wind tore apart small planes, and one flew down the runway as if it were taking off. The storm spun a parked pickup truck 180 degrees and ripped the roof off an 25m by 30m building.
In Desoto County outside Arcadia, several dead cows, wrapped in barbed wire, littered the roadside.
The hurricane rapidly gained strength in the Gulf of Mexico after crossing Cuba and swinging around the Florida Keys as a more moderate Category 2 storm Friday morning.
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