PUNTA GORDA, Fla. -- Hurricane Charley killed at least 15 people in Florida and flattened oceanfront homes, leaving thousands homeless as it roared across the state.

Wayne Sallade, Charlotte County's director of emergency management, said Saturday that the initial assessment was 10 confirmed deaths in the county but an exact total was not available.

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"Not hundreds. I would hope that it would be limited to dozens, if that," Sallade said. Charlotte County deputies were standing guard over bodies because the area was inaccessible to ambulances.

There were five confirmed storm-related deaths elsewhere in the state. The federal government is sending a 25-member mortuary team to help process bodies. Earlier, the storm killed three people in Cuba and one in Jamaica.

Latest Images of Damage: Charlotte County| Punta Gorda | Central Florida |
Helicopter View of Punta Gorda

President Bush said he will travel to Florida on Sunday to assess the damage. His brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, completing a helicopter tour of the region, saying, "our worst fears have come true."

The eye of the worst hurricane to hit Florida in a dozen years passed directly over Punta Gorda, a town of 15,000, which took a devastating hit Friday.

Charley caused widespread damage to oceanfront homes and trailer parks and knocked out power to an estimated 2 million customers as it crossed from southwest Florida to Daytona Beach.

Hundreds of people were missing in Charlotte and thousands were left homeless, Sallade said. He compared the devastation with 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which the National Hurricane Center directly blamed for the deaths of 26 people, most in South Florida.

"It's Andrew all over again," he said. "We believe there's significant loss of life."

Sallade did not have an estimate on a specific number of fatalities. He said it may take days to get a final toll.

Bob Carpenter, a Charlotte County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said Saturday that there are 31 mobile home parks in the county that suffered major damage-- some with more than 1,000 units. He said teams have been sent to each park to search for bodies and survivors, but getting into them has been tough.

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Fast Facts:
List Of Known Damage
Witnesses: Charley Put On 'Quite A Show'
Vignettes Along The Path Of Hurricane Charley

Extras:
Video: Punta Gorda Takes Brunt Of Storm
Homes Destroyed By Hurricane
Charley Damages Orlando Airport
Charley's Winds, Rain Hit Keys
Tampa Dodges Charley Bullet
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Send In Your Pics: If you capture great images of Charley's impact on Florida, send your photos to aminews@nbc6.net.

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"We just couldn't get the vehicles in -- there is so much debris," he said.

State emergency management director Craig Fugate said the priority now was trying to rescue people who may be trapped.

"If we're going to change the outcome for anybody that's been injured or trapped, we know time is of the essence," he said.

Extensive damage was also reported on exclusive Captiva Island, a narrow strip of sand west of Fort Myers. Marty Harrity, mayor of nearby Sanibel Island, where the storm surged 3-4 feet, said the bridge to the island will be closed until Lee County officials can assess its engineering and structural integrity. Emergency crews reached the island by helicopter to begin assessing the damage.

"We may literally have nothing," said 67-year-old Marilyn Saunders, who has not been able to get back to her mobile home on Sanibel. "But what can I do about it? But I still have not seen it. So I maybe have that little piece -- that faint hope -- that maybe we'll find something."

President Declares Region Major Disaster Area

President Bush declared a major disaster area in Florida, making federal money available to Charlotte, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota counties.

The Category 4 storm was stronger than expected when the eye reached the mainland at Charlotte Harbor, pummeling the coast with winds reaching 145 mph and a surge of sea water of 13 to 15 feet.

Charley returned to land about 10:20 a.m. Saturday, hitting near the border of North and South Carolina. It was forecast to spread sustained winds of about 40 mph to 60 mph across inland portions of eastern North Carolina and to dump 3 to 6 inches of rain. Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency.

In South Carolina, roads clogged Friday night as tourists and residents of the state's Grand Strand -- beaches and high-dollar homes and hotels -- heeded a mandatory evacuation order. Gov. Mark Sanford had urged voluntary evacuation earlier Friday.

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In Florida, 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 Saturday.

More than 200 ambulances -- many from southeast Florida -- were organized to transfer patients to other hospitals in Orlando, Sarasota, Tampa and Lee County.

Ambulances and fire rescue trucks formed a parade in front of the hospital, loaded up patients in gurneys and wheelchairs, before taking off.

"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.

At least 20 patients with storm injuries were reported at a hospital in Fort Myers.

A woman in Daytona Beach died of apparent electrocution, police said. Her body was found early Saturday lying at the base of a power pole in a residential area. A downed power line was touching the victim's foot. No other details were immediately available.

A Lake Wales man died after his Chevrolet truck drove into a washed-out section of road and flipped over, sending the vehicle about 35 feet down an embankment, Polk County sheriff's spokeswoman Michal Shanley said. The truck was found partially submerged in pooled water early Saturday, she said.

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, blew the windows out of a sheriff's deputy's car and ripped the roof off an 80-foot-by 100-foot building.

Martin said he saw homes ripped apart at two trailer parks.

"There were four or five overturned semi trucks -- 18-wheelers -- on the side of the road," he said.

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. An estimated 1.4 million people evacuated in anticipation of the strongest hurricane to strike Florida since Andrew in 1992.

Charley reached landfall at 3:45 p.m. EDT Friday, when the eye passed over barrier islands off Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, some 110 miles southeast of the Tampa Bay area.

FeedRoom

Charley Damages Orlando Airport

Charley hit the mainland 30 minutes later, with storm surge flooding of 10 to 15 feet, the hurricane center said. Nearly 1 million people live within 30 miles of the landfall.

The state put 5,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen on alert to help deal with the storm, but only 1,300 had been deployed by Friday night, a state emergency management spokeswoman said.

At a nursing center in Port Charlotte, Charley broke windows and ripped off portions of the roof, but none of the more than 100 residents or staff was injured, administrator Joyce Cuffe said.

"The doors were being sucked open," Cuffe said. "A lot of us were holding the doors, trying to keep them shut, using ropes, anything we could to hold the doors shut. There was such a vacuum, our ears and head were hurting."

Dan Strong, 51, returned to his home Saturday in Biehls Mobile Home Park in Punta Gorda to find it destroyed. He dug through the rubble trying to salvage photographs, clothes, some paintings and a stereo system he hoped would still work.

"Maybe I can save them," he said.

He picked through broken tables and chairs, a tipped over stove, and soaking wet sofas. "What I really need is a big broom," Strong said.

At 11 a.m. EDT Saturday, the center of the storm was in the Carolinas, about 35 miles south of Myrtle Beach, S.C., and moving north-northeast at 28 mph. Forecasters expected Charley to increase in speed. Maximum sustained winds were near 85 mph with higher gusts.

A hurricane warning was issued from the South Santee River in South Carolina to the Merrimack River in Massachusetts.

Spared the worst of the storm was the Tampa Bay area, where about a million people had been told to leave their homes. Some drove east, only to find themselves in the path of the Charley.

"I feel like the biggest fool," said Robert Angel of Tarpon Springs, who sought safety in a motel. "I spent hundreds of dollars to be in the center of a hurricane. Our home is safe, but now I'm in danger."

The fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Danielle, formed Friday but posed no immediate concern to land. The fifth may form as early as Saturday and threaten islands in the southeastern Caribbean Sea.

Donations Needed: Some areas of southwestern Florida were devastated by Hurricane Charley. Our neighbors to the north need support. Both the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army accept cash donations. Call 1-800-HELP-NOW, 1-800- SAL-ARMY, or visit www.redcross.org and www.salvationarmy.org to find out how you can help.