Bush makes post-Wilma visit in Florida
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-28 19:36

President Bush got his first look at the damage wrought by Hurricane Wilma as residents of South Florida continued to wait in lines for water, gas, ice and insurance help.

The president and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, took a helicopter tour Thursday of the area assailed by Wilma's damaging winds. The president also visited the National Hurricane Center in Miami and made a surprise stop at a Baptist church where volunteers served storm victims a barbecued pork lunch.

"People are getting fed," the president said. "Soon more and more houses will have their electricity. Their life will get back to normal."

But three days after the storm made landfall, many gas stations that had fuel were still without electricity, and others that had power ran out of supplies. Tempers ran short and shouting matches started at some stations when people tried cutting in line.

"There's plenty of gas in the ground," said a frustrated Ellen Kelly, who said she stood in line for four hours to get gas for a generator for her power-less home. "Get some generators."

Risk Management Solutions, a risk modeling firm, said new estimates projected that Wilma's insured losses in the United States ranged from $6 billion to $10 billion, up from previous estimates of $2 billion to $6 billion.

Fourteen deaths in Florida were blamed on Wilma, including five victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. The storm also killed at least 12 people in Haiti, four in Mexico and one in Jamaica.

A U.S. cruise ship was sent to the island of Cozumel to deliver aid and pick up any remaining American tourists stranded there but most appeared to have left the islands. In Cancun, lines at makeshift airline ticket counters had nearly vanished.

Mexican President Vicente Fox asked hotel owners not to lay off Cancun residents who rely on tourism for their livelihood. On Isla Mujeres, people complained of limited access to drinking water and homes destroyed by high winds, waves and flooding.

In Florida, State Attorney General Charlie Crist said 279 arrests related to price gouging incidents had been made as of late Thursday. The punishment in fines ranges up to $15,000 per incident.

Still, things were slowly returning to normal in South Florida as restaurants, supermarkets, car washes and even movie theaters opened.

In the Keys island chain, where Wilma's storm surge caused extensive flooding, plans were announced to welcome tourists beginning Friday. The region's three largest airports were open to commercial traffic, although officials said it could be at least another day before service returned to normal.

Wilma knocked out electricity to more than 6 million people, and Florida Power & Light said it had restored power to roughly 45 percent of its customers who lost service. That still left about 4 million without power, however, and officials warned the restoration process could take until Thanksgiving week.

Local and county officials have complained about the latest federal relief effort, stirring memories of the criticism directed at Bush and the Federal Emergency Management Agency following Hurricane Katrina.

A day after nine of the 11 water and ice distribution sites in Miami-Dade County ran out of supplies, only one ran out, with four others running low. Some of the 17 sites in Broward County also ran out of supplies, but each was to reopen Friday.

"Many did run out of these products, and they did run out of these products after very few hours of operation," Broward County Mayor Kristin Jacobs said.

FEMA spokeswoman Frances Marine said the agency dispatched more than 300 truckloads of food, water and ice Thursday to distribution sites in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. The Defense Department was flying C-17 cargo aircraft sorties into Homestead Air Reserve Base, each of which can carry 40 truckloads of goods to the region.

"We are furiously pushing out commodities," Marine said.

With more than a month to go in this year's record-breaking hurricane season, Tropical Storm Beta formed in the southwestern Caribbean Sea, becoming the season's 23rd tropical storm — the most since record-keeping began in 1851. Beta was expected to threaten Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua but not the United States.