Jorge Vergara, 3, plays in the wreckage of his grandparents' destroyed mobile home at the Pink Citrus Trailer Park in Pine Island, Florida Sunday. Vergara's family rode out Hurricane Charley in their car. (Photos: AP)

PUNTA GORDA, Florida (AP) -Driven from splintered trailers, roofless condominiums and powerless suburban homes, Hurricane Charley's hungry victims sweated through long lines to find food, showers and drinking water three days after the storm left their lives in shambles.

Barbara Winslow and her fiance were sitting in a van with five antsy children in a thunderstorm Monday waiting for a chance to collect diapers, food, water and ice at a National Guard comfort station.

"After you live through it, you can't imagine how desperate you get," she said. "You don't have anything. If the end of the world came tomorrow, this is what it would look like."
For Winslow and many others, the relief over having survived started to be replaced by the reality of a long rebuilding process.

Some of the 15,000 residents of Punta Gorda waited 30 minutes for ice, water and portable commodes set up by the National Guard. Volunteer Jessica Byrnes held 4-month-old Brody Keener near an electric fan connected to a generator.
The baby, dressed only in a diaper, managed a slight smile.
"He can't keep anything down, it's so hot," said Alyssa Thibodeau, who was baby-sitting her cousin as his parents sought supplies. "We keep giving him ice water and washing him. He's hanging in there."

Betty Tootill carries supplies to her damaged mobile home at Windmill Village Mobile Home Park, in Punta Gorda on Monday. Her home was severely damaged, and she is planning on staying in the one room that is dry.

"I just want something to eat," house cleaner Willie Mae Robinson said as she waited for canned goods and ice with several dozen others at an old train depot in Bowling Green, where temperatures soared into the high 80s Fahrenheit (low 30s Celsius). "I have something for today but I don't have anything for tomorrow."

At a Red Cross shelter in Englewood, about 300 people woke up to a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and milk.
Jo Trail was staying there with her husband and 10-year-old grandson after their Arcadia mobile home was destroyed as they rode out the storm underneath a mattress.

"It took the false teeth right out of my mouth," Trail said, showing her gums. "It took the glasses right off of my face."

Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte were among the hardest-hit areas, and 25 of Florida's 67 counties were designated federal disaster areas. At least 18 people in Florida were killed by the storm, and officials estimate it caused as much as $11 billion in damage to insured homes alone.

Last week, Charley killed four people in Cuba and one in Jamaica.

An estimated 640,000 people in Florida remained without power yesterday, and officials estimated it could take weeks to get it fully restored. At least 150,000 were without local phone service.

About 2,300 people stayed in shelters, and Federal Emergency Management Agency director, Michael Brown, said yesterday that $2 million in payments had already been issued to victims, with more on the way. He said the agency had received 23,500 applications seeking relief, including 13,000 on Monday alone.

There were other small signs of progress yesterday as some residents were also able to collect their mail from postal workers at the heavily damaged main Post Office in Punta Gorda .

Nearly 4,400 National Guard troops have been activated and nearly 2,000 insurance adjusters were handling claims. The American Red Cross established eight mobile kitchens and five feeding centers capable of serving 9,000 meals a day.

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