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LAKE WALES - Four days after Hurricane Charley slammed into her mobile home, Alta Keller, 92, still has no power, no air conditioning, no phone and a tap that pours undrinkable water.
To survive, she eats canned chicken, tuna fish and an occasional cup of instant coffee she heats over a can of Sterno. When sheriff's officials brought her some ice on Monday, "I almost felt like getting down and praying," she said Tuesday in a trembling voice.
Ms. Keller has moved her bed into the dining room, away from the leaky roof, and she wonders how she will get the branches and twisted metal carport roof out of her yard in a mobile home park about 60 miles east of Tampa.
A niece in Ohio has offered to take her in, but Ms. Keller, who is retired from a company that made refrigerator motors in Grand Rapids, Mich., refuses to leave. "This shows what I've got left of my life, you might say, my earnings," she said.
Countless people like Ms. Keller - elderly, far from relatives and oftentimes frail - were left in Charley's wake as it churned across nine Florida counties last week.
They are members of America's so-called "greatest generation." But now, some experts and state officials fear, some of the people who survived the Great Depression and won World War II are facing yet another hardship as they try to resume their lives.
Traumatic events like hurricanes sometimes prompt elders to become more isolated, said Jim Hinterlong, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Florida State University who works with the university's Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy. After surviving a hurricane and seeing that tree limbs and shingles remain in your yard, "you get this enhanced sense of being at risk or vulnerable," he said.
In addition, "some people are going to become depressed, especially if they've had losses, loss of property, loss of a pet," Hinterlong said. That can isolate them further.
The problem might be particularly keen in Charlotte County, where Charley made its violent landfall.
Thirty-five percent of the county's residents are 65 or older, the highest percentage of any county in the country. And 8 percent are 80 and older, a higher percentage than any Florida county except Miami-Dade.
On Monday, the state began a coordinated effort to track down the frailest people in Charlotte County who receive help from programs such as Meals on Wheels and home health care. Similar efforts are under way in other counties that Charley struck.
Terry White, secretary of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, joined workers checking on the elderly Monday in Charlotte. He said he was pulling in workers from around the state to assist in the most seriously damaged areas, and trying to make sure food and water are available to seniors who can't leave their homes.
"There's a danger that there are people out there who are sitting inside rickety structures in the dark with no air conditioning," said state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-West Palm Beach, whose district includes part of Charlotte County. "We don't have a count of how many people are alive and are shut-ins because of the storm.
"We're holding our breath because there's a sinking feeling that the death toll is not fully accounted for," Aronberg said.
The state effort has missed some people. One of them is Mary Haggerty, an 86-year-old widow who rode out Charley in her Arcadia home with her widowed daughter. The hurricane seriously damaged her home.
"I am still scared," Haggerty said Tuesday. "No official people have come by to see if we are alive. What if one of us died? Who cares? You would think the sheriff would come by, but they haven't. I think older people are being overlooked."
Mac Maguire, 79, lives in Charlotte County in a home where part of the roof is missing. He spends most of his time sitting in a living room chair next to an open window, with his walker nearby. Maguire is nearly blind, has Parkinson's disease and takes heart medicine that makes him sensitive to heat. The power is out, so there is no air conditioning.
Sometimes his "lady friend," Frances Caesar, 82, goes out for things they need.
When she leaves, he won't budge from his chair. There's no phone to call for help if he should fall.
Still, Maguire considers himself better off than many his age. He has the companionship of Caesar, and friends brought hot lasagna for dinner Monday.
Maguire and Caesar have found one form of relief.
"We go out to the car for air conditioning to cool off," Caesar said.
Doris Rogers, 81, who wears a back brace, was clearly shaken after the roof caved in on three rooms of her house in Charlotte County.
Her husband is in the hospital recovering from a triple bypass and cancer surgery. Family members offer to help, but she is reluctant to pester them.
"I hate to ask them all the time and I don't drive," she said.
However, many elderly hurricane victims are getting help from friends and relatives.
In Lake Wales, in her mobile home across the street from Ms. Keller, 75-year-old Alice Bright seemed quite cheerful Tuesday considering the circumstances, saying she was thankful to God she had not gotten hurt.
She spent the morning clearing the brush away from her yard with help from her son, Leonard Barber. Barber, 56, is president of a United Auto Workers local in Kokomo, Ind., but dropped negotiations over a contract so he could help his mother.
Even in homes where extra help is everywhere, however, life can be hard for some seniors.
Bill and May Baker, 74 and 69, live in Lake Wales with five members of their family, five dogs, three parakeets and "a whole bunch of cats."
They have a generator, but it is being used to keep the water running at their well. So there is no way to plug in the machine Bill Baker uses at night for sleep apnea.
"I'm very worried," said his daughter, Wanda Baker, "because he really needs it."
Times photographer Kinfay Moroti and researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.