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Notebook: Crowd raids nearly empty Publix

PUNTA GORDA - At 8:45 a.m. Sunday, the line outside Publix off U.S. 41 was 50 deep.

"I didn't stock anything," said Sandra Bussey, 50, who was down to a can of Beanee Weenees and had neither power nor water.

A sign at the store read: "No C or D batteries, No charcoal or sterno, No produce, No meats, No bakery, No restroom."

At 9 a.m., assistant Publix manager Tom Dominici, 45, shouted, "Open her up!"

Shoppers streamed into the dark store and made straight for ice and water. Publix trucked in 22 pallets of water and 38 pallets of ice on two semitrailers. Shoppers, some searching shelves with flashlights, filled carts.

Cereal. Candy bars. Cigarettes. Film. Hand sanitizer.

"How about milk?" a man asked.

No.

Clerks took cash and credit. No lottery tickets were available.

In the parking lot, a man in a Publix uniform called out to a couple, "Have a good day, folks."

TALLAHASSEE - Looting, price-gouging and repair scams remain major concerns.

At the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, a tough-talking Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson said anyone caught scamming hurricane victims would be charged.

"We're not playing games. We're not giving warnings," he said. "If somebody is out there price-gouging, they are going to be charged. . . . Watch out for the scam artists. They are out there. They always are."

Bronson described a scam in Polk County in which a couple was told that a damaged tree would be cut down "for $11,000." The couple contacted authorities instead.

Bronson asked Floridians to call a hotline if they suspect people, for example, selling generators at premium prices. The phone number is toll-free 1-800-646-0444.

Michael Bolch of the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned storm victims against someone asking for money to handle a disaster claim. FEMA does not charge for that.

"If somebody asks you to send them a fee up front . . . that is a scam," Bolch said.

In addition to putting up temporary shelters and portable toilets for the thousands left homeless by Charley, FEMA distributed the first checks to victims. The phone number to call for federal disaster relief is toll-free 1-800-621-3362. By Sunday morning, FEMA reported more than 2,600 calls in two days. Bolch said victims will be asked to give their names, addresses and Social Security numbers. The phone line is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.

BOCA GRANDE - One resident suffered a minor injury in this wealthy village on Gasparilla Island, which saw many of its trees stripped away.

At the historic Gasparilla Inn and Cottages, shingles and siding were ripped off many buildings, and falling trees damaged two cottages. The inn had been closed for the summer. General manager Andy Nagle hoped it would re-open on Nov. 1 as scheduled.

"Given where the storm came ashore, just south of here, we think we were very lucky," fire Chief David Edmonds said.

PORT CHARLOTTE - On the north side of Charlotte Harbor, Paul Reiss didn't know the storm was coming until he got a phone call from a neighbor traveling in Maryland.

"He said, "You've got a Category 4 coming and the eye is going to be right over you,' " Reiss said. "I would have taken off, but I didn't have time."

Reiss hunkered down in his bedroom with two packs of cigarettes and a bottle of Jim Beam.

"No ice, just straight out of the bottle," he said. "But I got through it pretty good."

Nearby, Michael and Ellen Heller picked up the pieces of their house.

"We've got a generator, TV, water, a fan," Michael Heller said. "I even went out into the street and hooked up my own phone . . . so we are doing pretty good."

The Hellers left their house minutes ahead of the storm and drove around Lake Okeechobee, returning about 8 p.m. to find their house devastated.

"The fear made me sick to my stomach," Ellen Heller said. "I didn't know whether to get in my car or get in the closet."

Michael Heller, the publisher of a local boating magazine called Water Life, knew the storm was going to be a rough one.

"The water temperature was five or six degrees warmer just to the south of us," he said. "I knew it was going to just feed this storm."

Heller joked about President Bush's visit. "We don't need Bush; we need Carter," he said, alluding to the ex-president's work building homes with Habitat for Humanity. "We don't need suits; we need hammers."

PUNTA GORDA - Lois West was okay talking about the way her roof sagged. Or about how her lanai was in a heap.

But the sewing machines in the shower? That was another story. That made the 70-year-old cry.

"My livelihood," she said.

Those machines supported her for 18 years while she ran a sewing shop in Port Charlotte. But she couldn't take them when she abandoned her Punta Gorda mobile home for safer land Friday.

The machines stayed behind. They got wet. They will rust. They may be ruined.

She put them in the shower Sunday to protect them from post-Charley rains, but she fears they are already lost.

While the water got to the machines, the wind got to her sewing room, tossing spools, needles and thimbles across the soggy carpet.

"I got a pair of pants of Danny's here he asked me to fix," West told her live-in partner, Lucien Jones. "I'll have to give them back."

While West still does some sewing work, these days she makes most of her money working at the local Wal-Mart. Danny, who asked her to fix his pants, works there with her.

West said the Wal-Mart building was obliterated.

"I've lost my job, I've lost this," she said of her home.

- Times staff writers Leanora Minai, Steve Bousquet, David Ballingrud, Jeff Harrington, Terry Tomalin and Chris Tisch contributed to this report.