The death toll from Hurricane Charley climbed to 16 on Sunday 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. At Punta Gorda, one of the Gulf Coast towns that bore the brunt of Charley's assault, local officials declined to say how many bodies were being stored in refrigerated trucks brought in as temporary morgues. But it was beginning to look like the fatalities would not be as high as originally feared. "If the toll is what I believe I'm hearing, in a storm of the magnitude we went through, it's a miracle. I thought we would be looking at a significant loss of life. I was extremely concerned. I am feeling better," said Wayne Sallade, director of emergency management in Charlotte County. Gov. Jeb Bush put preliminary damage estimates at 15 billion US dollar but cautioned that was likely to change, a spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management said. 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. **1.1 MILLION POWERLESS*** By Sunday, 1.1 million people in the state were still without power, many of them in the area of Charley's initial tornado-like punch 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. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Trailer homes are seen after being destroyed by Hurricane Charley in Punta Gorda, Florida August 15, 2004. (Reuters)