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Upper Captiva Island is seen after Hurricane Charley cut a new channel through it, as the storm came ashore west of Fort Myers, in Florida, August 14, 2004. Across storm-struck southwest Florida, dazed residents emerged Saturday morning from damaged homes or returned from public shelters to find their lives turned inside out by Hurricane Charley, which struck Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Fort Myers with ferocious 145 mph (233 kph) winds and a flooding 15-foot (4.5-meter) storm surge. Hurricane Charley battered multimillion-dollar houses on exclusive islands off southwest Florida, prompting an initial damage estimate of $3 billion in one county alone, an official said Saturday. REUTERS/Pierre Ducharme

Sat Aug 14, 2:18 PM ET

Upper Captiva Island is seen after Hurricane Charley cut a new channel through it, as the storm came ashore west of Fort Myers, in Florida, August 14, 2004. Across storm-struck southwest Florida, dazed residents emerged Saturday morning from damaged homes or returned from public shelters to find their lives turned inside out by Hurricane Charley, which struck Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Fort Myers with ferocious 145 mph (233 kph) winds and a flooding 15-foot (4.5-meter) storm surge. Hurricane Charley battered multimillion-dollar houses on exclusive islands off southwest Florida, prompting an initial damage estimate of $3 billion in one county alone, an official said Saturday.