Florida begins cleanup

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - Residents left homeless by Hurricane Charley's 145 mph winds dug through their ravaged homes on Sunday, sweeping up shattered glass and rescuing what they could as President Bush promised rapid delivery of disaster aid.

With temperatures in the 90s and humidity that made it feel hotter, people waited with carts in long lines to buy ice. Supermarkets gave away water in five cities as just under 1 million people remained without power and 2,300 stayed in emergency shelters.

"It's as close to hell as I can think of," said Khoum Khampapha, a resident of Easy Street in Port Charlotte, as he looked around his neighborhood of gutted homes. "It's just breathtaking."

As the storm weakened off the coast of New England, Bush surveyed the devastation in Florida, where the storm caused billions of dollars in damage and killed at least 16 people.

In and around Punta Gorda, trailer after trailer lay toppled. Others were blown apart entirely, exposing interior walls that had been pushed down flat, with doorways leading to nowhere. Other rooms stood, but without ceilings or roofs to shelter them from the open sky.

Shards of wood and metal lay scattered about the green yards and floated in blue swimming pools that were filled to the brim by rainwater.

Chad Maxwell shoveled up soggy ceiling tiles and shattered glass Sunday from the floor of the real estate office where he works in Punta Gorda. Downtown "looks like a bomb zone," he said, surveying the coffee shop next door, which lost its second floor, and a florist with only one wall standing.

"Everything's gone. Everything's tore up," he said.

Emergency officials pronounced Charley the worst hurricane to hit Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Twenty-six deaths were directly linked to Andrew, which caused $19.9 billion in insured property losses.

The hardest-hit areas appeared to be the retirement community of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte in Charlotte County, though federal officials expanded the disaster aid zone to 25 counties on Sunday.

From his helicopter Marine One, Bush could see debris from trailer park homes strewn across green fields and roofs that had been torn off hangars at Charlotte County Airport. He consoled storm victims in Punta Gorda.

"All the clothes that I've got now is just what I'm wearing," resident George Nickols told Bush during the president's 21Ú2-hour visit.

The president promised rapid assistance for Florida, where officials estimated damages of up to $11 billion to insured homes alone.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was sending teams of medical, urban rescue and communication workers; at least 60 semitrailers containing cots, blankets, meals, portable toilets, wash kits and other necessities; and truckloads of water and ice.

Meanwhile, the fourth and fifth named storms of the Atlantic hurricane season were out at sea Sunday. Tropical Storm Danielle formed Friday and developed into a hurricane Saturday but was several days from land.

Tropical Storm Earl had sustained winds of 45 mph and was centered about 90 miles west of Grenada on Sunday afternoon.