Millions Powerless In Florida

Repair crews across Florida struggled Tuesday to restore electricity to up to 6 million people, reopen the region's airports and replace countless windows blown out of downtown high-rises during Hurricane Wilma's ruinous dash across the state.

CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports that it will take one month to restore power.

"This is the biggest event that we have ever experienced in terms of a hurricanes," Florida Power and Light's L.T. Dwinder, who is in charge of the company's storm management operation, told Regan.

Water and gas became precious commodities, and people waited for hours for free water, ice and food. Lines stretched for blocks at the few gas stations with the electricity needed to pump fuel, and arguments broke out when motorists tried to cut in line. More than 500 people waited outside one store for cleanup supplies.

Regan reports that thousands in Broward County

"You have a line going all around the field to get one bottle of water and one bag of ice. That's absurd," one woman told Regan. "By the time these people get here with that bag of ice, it will be melted when they get home."

But barely 24 hours after the Category 3 storm struck, there were signs of recovery.

"We have power! We have power!" several residents of Miami Lakes chanted as they ran out their back doors when the lights came on.

The quantity of debris was daunting: Pieces of roofs, trees, signs, awnings, fences, billboards and pool screens were scattered across several counties. Damage estimates ranged up to $10 billion.

President Bush promised swift help for the storm-ravaged areas. He signed a disaster declaration and was briefed on the situation by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, acting FEMA director David Paulison and Mr. Bush's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush.

"We have pre-positioned food, medicine, communications equipment, urban search-and-rescue teams," the president said. "We will work closely with local and state authorities to respond to this hurricane."

"Tomorrow's going to be better than today," Gov. Bush said.

Some of the worst damage was in downtown Fort Lauderdale, where Wilma was the strongest hurricane to strike since 1950. Winds of more than 100 mph blew out windows in high-rises, many built before Florida enacted tougher construction codes following Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

The school district's 14-story headquarters — known as the "Crystal Palace" — was stripped of nearly its entire glass facade on one side.

"We're going to have to fix it in a way that is stronger," schools superintendent Frank Till said.

CBS News correspondent Jim Acosta reports that the damage could have been worse but Wilma hit one of nature's greatest shock absorbers — the Everglades — sparing south Florida from even more destruction. But conservationists warn that increasing development in the Everglades is

"You continue to create a situation like we just saw in New Orleans where you don't have those wetlands protections that were once there," says Teresa Pierno of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Government officials and business executives scrambled to repair buildings and find other places to work. Broward County court officials were trying to determine whether sessions could be held at the damaged courthouse in coming days.

Some schools and courts closed for the week. Orders to boil water were issued in many locations. Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties imposed overnight curfews.

Miami International Airport, the busiest U.S. hub for Latin American travel, scheduled its first flight since Wilma for late Tuesday afternoon. The Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach airports remained closed. At least 2,000 domestic and international flights were disrupted, affecting hundreds of thousands of fliers, when Wilma knocked out electricity and damaged roofs, towers, fences and other equipment.

Agriculture officials said damage to their industry would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The greatest losses were believed to be to the winter vegetable crop, which provides more than half of the nation's supply from November to February. Also hurt were sugar cane fields and ornamental-plant nurseries.

The 21st storm in the worst Atlantic hurricane season on record, Wilma was blamed for at least five deaths statewide.

"It will be days or weeks before we are back to normal," Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.

In the wake of complaints over the way the government dealt with Hurricane Katrina, the governor praised the early response to Wilma.

At Dania Beach City Hall, however, more than 100 people waited in line for ice and water that was supposed to arrive at 9 a.m. but never came. At the Orange Bowl in Miami, storm victims were frustrated to find limited supplies of relief items.

"Waiting six hours to get one bag of ice and six bottles of water is not a good thing," Alberto Martinez said.

Distribution went more smoothly elsewhere. At Key West High School, the food even included Key lime pie.

And many storm-savvy Floridians coped with good humor, their mood lifted in part by spectacular weather in the wake of Wilma: cloudless skies and unseasonably low temperatures that dropped into the 50s about dawn Tuesday and were in the mid-70s during the day.

"This weather is a blessing," said Agnes Howard, who found her home without air conditioning following a hurricane for the second time in two months.

"The heat in the aftermath of the last storm was insufferable," said her husband, John Terrill, referring to August's Katrina. "Nobody slept for days. At least we got a good night's sleep last night."

Wilma knocked out power for hundreds of miles, cutting off electricity to a staggering one out of three Florida residents. Florida Power & Light, the state' biggest utility, said Wilma affected more of its 4.3 million customers than any other natural disaster in the company's history.

In heavily populated areas such as Miami-Dade County, as many as 98 percent of its customers lost power.

At the Who's on 1st Deli in Fort Lauderdale, Maria Salvo and her daughters melted ice for coffee and made egg, cheese and sausage sandwiches on gas burners.

"We're selling whatever we have," she said as people waited in line with insulated cups.

Nearby, the steeple of the First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale was stripped bare, and the sanctuary lost much of its roof. Maintenance worker Don Anderson walked around the grounds with a chain saw, cutting up some of the 100 or so damaged trees.

Anderson said it was a blessing that the cold front that steered Wilma also brought cool weather.

"It'll keep the tensions down," he said. "The hotter it is, the worse they feel. But we'll survive long enough to come together. In fact, this is sometimes what we need. The people of America pull together in times of disaster."