President Assesses Wilma's Damage

Many Floridians struggled another day to find food, water and fuel after Hurricane Wilma on Thursday, with lines of people and cars forming around home improvement stores and gas stations.

President Bush arrived in Miami to visit the National Hurricane Center and boarded a helicopter to get his first look at the damage wrought by Wilma in Florida, where about two million homes and businesses were still without power.

"Things don't happen instantly, but things are happening," Mr. Bush said.

"People are getting fed. Soon more and more houses will have their electricity," Mr. Bush added as he greeted relief volunteers in Pompano Beach. "Their life will get back to normal."

Many gas stations that had fuel were without electricity, and others that had power ran out of supplies. Shouting matches started at some stations when people tried cutting in line.

The long lines for gasoline have residents tired and weary. It reminds many of Hurricane Katrina all over again with help not coming soon enough CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports. Officials blame the widespread power outage saying it's delaying cargo planes and trucks.

Criticism is widespread. At a senior citizen community outside Miami, resident Marilyn Abramowitz tells Regan, "Nobody, not the Democrats, not the Republicans, not the governor, not the mayor, nobody, has given us any attention. And we are 15,000 people."

But progress was being made: Port Everglades had power back for most of its fuel depot, which supplies stations across South Florida. About 700 trucks will be picking up gas there to deliver to stations Thursday, down from the normal 1,000, said Carlos Buqueras, director of business development at the Fort Lauderdale-area port.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez said the state's largest utility, Florida Power & Light, had reprioritized its efforts to restore electricity to gas stations and grocery stores quickly. His county has lent generators to some businesses to get them open and he has asked for more from the federal government.

Nine of the 11 water and ice distribution sites in Miami-Dade ran out of supplies Wednesday, but 10 were restocked Thursday, he said. Broward County had 17 sites open Thursday. Thousands of exasperated people have waited in lines for hours this week to get basic supplies.

A day earlier, Gov. Jeb Bush took responsibility for frustrating relief delays in a state all too familiar with powerful storms. On Thursday, Bush again pleaded for patience and said supplies were shipped overnight to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

"While we have a historic amount of product coming to these places, it's not enough, so we're going to have a couple of days before we get to the point where our supply will meet the demand," he said.

The criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was reminiscent of the anger unleashed following Hurricane Katrina.

"This is like the Third World," said Claudia Shaw, who spent several hours in a gas line. "We live in a state where we suffer from these storms every year. Where is the planning?"

More than 2,800 people remained housed in 25 shelters spread over 11 counties.

Florida's official death toll rose Wednesday from 10 to 14, including five carbon monoxide deaths. It was unclear if he was in the official tally, but a man died Thursday in Deerfield Beach after he was apparently overcome by carbon monoxide fumes from a generator, Broward County sheriff's spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said. The storm also killed at least 12 people in Haiti, four in Mexico and one in Jamaica.

In Mexico, weary tourists camped out at the airport in hopes of grabbing a precious seat on flights Thursday leaving hurricane-ravaged Cancun. Thousands of tourists remained stranded along Mexico's Caribbean coast.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who oversees FEMA, asked Floridians to have patience and promised to deploy cargo planes overnight to gather water and ice for delivery by Thursday.

"Under the best circumstances, even in the best planning, you still confront the physical reality of a destructive storm," Chertoff told The Associated Press during his flight to Florida.

More than 2,900 people remained housed in 25 shelters spread over 11 counties.

The state's largest utility, Florida Power & Light, had restored power by Thursday to about 36 percent of the 6 million people who had lost it. Officials warned, however, that the full restoration process could last through Nov. 22 in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

"All we can do is be patient and tell them an estimated time because we don't know what we might find down the line," utility foreman Heath Lowery said in Coral Gables. "We don't come out here and just turn a switch on and the lights come back."

Broward County Mayor Kristin Jacobs told CBS News The Early Show on Thursday that a boil-water order should be lifted soon, but the extended time the county is expected to be without power was problematic.

The record-breaking storm season wasn't over. Tropical Storm Beta, the season's 23rd tropical storm, formed in the Caribbean and was expected to threaten Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, but not the United States.

In Florida, the Upper and Middle Keys announced plans to accommodate tourists again beginning Friday; the Lower Keys, including Key West, expected to have tourists return starting Monday.

In the meantime, storm-savvy Floridians resorted to their ingenuity.

At one Wal-Mart, 30 people sat on the sidewalk while they used the store's outside electrical outlets to recharge their cell phones. At one gas station, a man went car-to-car selling fuel from a 10-gallon plastic tank. The price was $20 for about a gallon, and people happily paid.

"It's not a matter of we lack fuel, we just can't get it out of the ground because we lack power," said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez. "Grocery stores are closed because we don't have power. The longer we go without power, the worse the situation gets."