The four major hurricanes that struck Florida during August 13-September 25, 2004, produced electric power outages in several million homes (1). After the hurricanes, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) investigated six deaths in Florida attributed to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning (CPSC, unpublished data, 2004). The Florida Department of Health and CDC analyzed demographic and CO exposure data from these fatal poisoning cases and from nonfatal poisoning cases among 167 persons treated at 10 hospitals, including two with hyperbaric oxygen (HB[O.sub.2]) chambers. This report describes the results of that analysis, which determined that misplacement of portable, gasoline-powered generators (e.g., indoors, in garages, or outdoors near windows) was responsible for nearly all of these CO exposures. Public health practitioners should recognize that post-hurricane environments present challenges to the safe operation of portable generators and should educate the public on the hazards of CO poisoning in these settings.

All medical records were reviewed from participating hospitals in which a patient received a diagnosis of unintentional CO poisoning (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision code 986) during August 13-October 15, 2004. These dates correspond to landfall of the first hurricane (Charley) and 3 weeks after landfall of the last hurricane (Jeanne), when active surveillance for CO poisoning was discontinued. Nine participating hospitals, including one with an HB[O.sub.2] chamber, were located in landfall counties and involved in posthurricane surveillance; a tenth participating hospital, which also had an HB[O.sub.2] chamber, was located in central Florida. Any case involving a diagnosis of unintentional CO poisoning not related to a fire was included. All available information about the patient's exposure, clinical presentation, laboratory testing (e.g., result of earliest available measurement of blood carboxyhemoglobin [COHb] level), and medical treatment was collected. In addition, investigations into six deaths from five exposure incidents were reviewed for basic demographic information and details about generator location. Because the six persons who were fatally poisoned died before arrival at a medical facility, no clinical information was recorded for them.