The death toll from Hurricane Charley climbed to 16 last night as thousands left homeless in southwest Florida sorted through wreckage.
The fiercest hurricane to strike Florida in 12 years, Charley's 145 mph winds destroyed mobile homes, ripped roofs off houses and damaged tens of thousands of other buildings when it smashed ashore on Friday.
Florida emergency management officials said three more deaths had been confirmed, bringing the toll to 16.
Governor Jeb Bush put preliminary damage estimates at $15 billion but warned that was likely to change.
Some 3,900 people whose homes were demolished spent the night in shelters on Saturday, and thousands of others sought refuge with friends or relatives.
By yesterday, 1.1 million people in the state were still without power, many of them in the area of Charley's initial incursion through a 10-mile wide swath. Several cities lacked running water.
Emergency workers opened care stations to dispense water, ice and food and give residents a chance to take showers, for many their first in three days. But the lack of phone service and power made it difficult to coordinate relief efforts.