Punta Gorda, Fla. ? Rescuers rummaged through a chaotic landscape of pulverized homes and twisted metal Saturday, racing to tally Hurricane Charley’s “significant loss of life” and help thousands left homeless by its vicious winds and rain. Thirteen people were confirmed dead.

As a weakened Charley churned into the Carolinas and was downgraded to a tropical storm, newly sunny skies revealed its destruction in Florida, where emergency officials pronounced it the worst to wallop the state since Hurricane Andrew tore through in 1992. Twenty-six deaths were directly linked to Andrew, which caused $19.9 billion in damage.

“Our worst fears have come true,” said Gov. Jeb Bush, who surveyed the devastation by helicopter. The Category 4 storm was expected to cost Florida “at least several billion dollars,” said Loretta Worters, spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute.

State officials confirmed 13 deaths based on reports from medical examiners. The hardest-hit areas appeared to be Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte in Charlotte County.

Wayne Sallade, the county’s director of emergency management, reported as many as 10 deaths, but the state said it had confirmed only four as of Saturday night. Orange, Polk and Volusia counties each reported two deaths, while Desoto, Lee and Sarasota counties reported one death each.

Sallade also said hundreds of people were unaccounted for, but state officials said it was impossible to estimate the number of missing.

“We believe there’s significant loss of life,” Sallade said, adding later: “I would hope that it would be limited to dozens, if that.”

He said “thousands upon thousands of people” lost their homes.

County officials parked two refrigerated 18-wheel trucks along the Peace River to serve as mobile morgues.

Roger Picard with Tampa Fire and Rescue climbs over the debris of a gasoline station and automotive shop, searching for survivors in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley in Punta Gorda, Fla. The storm, which raced Friday across Florida, killed at least 13 people, flattened homes, left thousands homeless and caused billions in damage. Picard searched for survivors Saturday.

Extensive damage was also reported on exclusive Captiva Island, a narrow strip of sand west of Fort Myers.

Thirty-one mobile-home parks in Charlotte County sustained major damage, some with more than 1,000 units, said Bob Carpenter, a sheriff’s spokesman. He said teams were sent to each park to search for bodies and survivors, but “we just couldn’t get the vehicles in — there is so much debris.”

Several medical centers were badly damaged, forcing hospital officials to evacuate patients to other facilities.

“Where do we go now? What do we do?” said 69-year-old Barbara Seaman, standing by the shell of a demolished building in Punta Gorda’s Windmill Village Trailer Park.

Dane Gomez, 28, was renting his parents’ old trailer in the Baileyville neighborhood of Punta Gorda. This little uninsured mobile home was his first taste of real independence.

“I called it home sweet home,” Gomez said as he combed the rubble in vain for his 3-year-old cat, Oscar. “I don’t know why God intended for this to happen. It’s not right. It’s not fair. How do you get back what you lost?”

In Lawrence, Floridian relieved to hear from sons

Disaster declared

The storm and its 145-mph winds knocked out power to some 2 million homes and businesses as it crossed from the southwest coast at Punta Gorda to the Atlantic at Daytona Beach. Some 1.3 million remained without power Saturday afternoon, emergency officials said, and downed lines slowed some rescuers.

Three cities in southwest Florida — Arcadia, Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda — were without running water, state environmental officials said.

President Bush, the governor’s brother, declared Florida a federal disaster area. The president planned a visit today to survey damage, and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, in a statement, offered “heartfelt sympathies.”

Ben Czyl, 75, recovers some clothes from the manufactured home park where he has lived for 17 years, after Hurricane Charley moved through the area on Friday. The storm killed at least 13 people in Florida and flattened oceanfront homes, leaving thousands homeless as it roared across the state.

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.

When it hit, the storm upended trucks, twisted traffic lights and lifted entire houses atop neighbors’ homes. Entire trailer parks were torn to splinters, and dazed residents wandered around neighborhoods, gathering miscellaneous belongings.

‘Dangerous’ cleanup

At the Port Charlotte airport, small planes were stacked and snapped apart like toys cast off by an angry child.

“I’ve been through typhoons in Guam, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Charles Charwat, an 84-year-old retiree in Ormond Beach, on Florida’s east coast.

Terry Frey, of Port Charlotte, Fla., guards his house with a shotgun and pistol Saturday morning, warning potential looters to stay away. Hurricane Charley made landfall in the area Friday.

There were five confirmed storm-related deaths elsewhere in the state.

Mike McHargue, director of investigations for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said two people died in Polk County, and the others were in DeSoto, Lee and Sarasota counties. He said downed power lines and debris made the work of searching for bodies “tedious and dangerous.”

Deputies were standing guard over some bodies because they were in areas not immediately accessible by ambulances. Earlier, Charley killed four people in Cuba and one in Jamaica.

As recovery efforts began, Florida officials warned against price gouging and said violators would face heavy fines.

Next stop: Carolinas

Hundreds of miles north, Charley’s course took it across open ocean, missing the westward curving shore of Georgia. It made its second landfall on South Carolina’s Grand Strand resort region, which was nearly empty after a mandatory evacuation of some of the area’s 180,000 tourists and residents.

Florida Department of Transportation workers stand near a hole in State Road 60, in Lake Wells, Fla. Jerry Padgett Jr. was killed Friday night when his car went into the hole, which developed as Hurricane Charley passed through the area.

National Guard troops were on duty Saturday in North Carolina, where a mandatory evacuation order was in effect for vulnerable coastal areas hit less than two weeks ago by Hurricane Alex.

In Virginia, Gov. Mark R. Warner declared a state of emergency. Charley-related weather was forecast as far north as Massachusetts, the New York metropolitan area and swaths of northern Pennsylvania. All of New Jersey was under a flood watch Saturday afternoon.

The American Red Cross set up more than 250 disaster relief shelters in Florida and 40 shelters in the Carolinas. Staffers and volunteers were providing dry clothing, meals, first aid and counseling.

In Orlando, central Florida’s major theme parks reopened Saturday.