"We are doing the best we can to address the needs of our residents so that we can free up federal assistance for our neighboring states," Gov. Jeb Bush said.
Florida hospitals have 1,000 beds available for patients in hospitals damaged by Katrina. Medical personnel will head into disaster areas.
Nearly 2,000 people were in 21 shelters in the Florida Panhandle. Many were from out of state, though the number was unclear.
Seven west Florida counties reported power outages, including 60 percent of customers in Escambia and 41 percent in Santa Rosa. And the storm closed several major roads in the west Florida Panhandle, including the Interstate 10 bridge over Escambia Bay.
In South Florida, Katrina's death toll rose to 11, including a 79-year-old man killed by a tree limb while clearing debris and a 27-year-old man found in a warehouse with an empty generator. At least 33 people suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from operating generators in their homes or garages.
Move-in, then evacuation
Steve Hegarty, spokesman for the Hillsborough County School District, drove his son, Ryan, a sophomore at Tulane University, to New Orleans on Friday evening.
Then he drove him home again late Saturday night.
"It was amazing how quickly it turned around from move-in to evacuation," Hegarty said Monday.
University officials provided buses to take students north to Jackson, Miss.
"There were long lines of students with backpacks and pillows tucked under their arms," Hegarty said. "They didn't look real happy."
Ryan, 19, evacuated New Orleans last year, too, when Hurricane Ivan threatened the city. He flew to Dallas where one of his uncles lives, his father said.
This year, he and his parents barely had time to move him into his dormitory room before it was time to get out of town.
On Monday, the Tulane Web site indicated that the school in the city's Garden District might not begin until Sept. 7.
"That seems way too optimistic," Hegarty said.
Rescuers go to Mississippi
A rescue crew of 28 people and six search dogs left Florida on Monday for Biloxi, Miss., to help look for people who might be trapped in buildings damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Capt. Louie Fernandez, spokesman for the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, said the crew took enough provisions to survive independently for up to three days.
The Miami crew will relieve local firefighters.
The county has one of 28 national urban search and rescue task forces. The urban search and rescue program started in 1989 after an earthquake caused massive damage in Mexico City.
Debris getting familiar
The Florida Panhandle has been pummeled with so many storms over the past year that authorities cannot get the debris from one picked up before it gets scattered about by another.
"We've almost learned to recognize the debris now when we see it," Escambia County Sheriff Ron McNesby said Monday in Pensacola.
The Panhandle was first struck by Hurricane Ivan last September and then this year by Tropical Storms Arlene and Cindy followed by Hurricane Dennis last month and Hurricane Katrina on Monday.
"What we're really doing is blowing the same debris and the same tree limbs around that have been stacked by the road or in your yard," McNesby said.
--Staff writers Bill Duryea and Joni James contributed to this report, which used information from the Associated Press.
