Back By Allen G. Breed; Associated Press Residents left homeless by Hurricane Charley’s 145-mph wind dug through their ravaged homes on Sunday, sweeping up shattered glass and rescuing what they could as President George W. Bush promised rapid delivery of disaster aid. Mandatory curfews were in effect in three counties.  Supermarkets gave away water in five cities as just under 1 million people remained without power and residents in hardest-hit areas were advised to continue boiling water before use.  More than 2,000 people remained 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, FL, as he looked around his neighborhood of gutted homes.  “It’s just breathtaking.” As the storm weakened off the coast of New England, the president 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 sun. Wood and metal lay scattered about on green yards and floated in blue swimming pools 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 flower shop 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 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 communities 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 are just what I’m wearing,” resident George Nickols told Bush during the president’s two-and-a-half hour visit. The president promised rapid assistance for Florida, where officials estimated damages of up to $11 billion to insured homes alone. When asked about why he made such a quick trip to Florida in this election year, Bush said: “If I didn’t come, they would’ve said we should have been here more rapidly.” The Federal Emergency Management Agency was sending teams of medical, urban rescue and communication workers; at least 60 tractor-trailers containing cots, blankets, meals, portable toilets, wash kits and other necessities; and truckloads of water and ice. FEMA said the state had requested catastrophic housing for 10,000 people, and more than 4,000 National Guard troops had been activated. “It’s going to be awesome – shock and awe – that’s our goal,” said Gov. Jeb Bush, the president’s younger brother. J. B. Hunt, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, said the agency had established eight mobile kitchen and five feeding centers that will be capable of serving 9,000 meals a day by today. “This is the largest Red Cross response since Sept. 11,” she said. Officials have said hundreds of people were unaccounted for on Sunday.  The search for missing people was slow in some areas because downed power lines and debris were making the search dangerous, law enforcement officials said. Earlier, Charley killed four people in Cuba and one in Jamaica. After slamming into Florida with the wind reaching 145 mph and a surge of sea water of 13 feet to 15 feet, Charley hit open ocean and made landfall again in South Carolina’s Grand Strand resort region.  It moved into North Carolina and up the eastern seaboard as a tropical storm before being downgraded to a depression on Sunday. The remnants of Charley dropped rain across the northeast but caused little damage as the storm sped toward the North Sea. Heavy damage was reported on the Gulf Coast barrier islands. The luxury vacation haven of North Captiva Island, which can be reached only by air and boat, was divided in two by Charley’s storm surge, creating a new inlet that appears to be several hundred yards long, Lee County spokesman Pat O’Rourke said. Access to Sanibel, with about 6,000 residents, and Fort Myers Beach, with about 7,000 residents, remained cut off as officials assessed the damage. At least five hospitals were damaged.  Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda evacuated all patients Saturday and planned to stay closed for as long as three weeks. 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 was about 90 miles west of Grenada Sunday afternoon.   This story may be available for an Adobe Acrobat PDF download. Click on the link below to visit the site download center. 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