Residents armed with chain saws and brooms and an army of electrical repair crews yesterday attacked the shambles left behind by Hurricane Wilma's rampage through Florida, where 6 million people were without power.

Wilma, at one time the most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin, killed at least four people in Florida on Monday after a devastating trek through the Caribbean that killed at least 10 in Haiti and seven in Mexico.

A powerful Category 3 storm with 200 kph winds when it struck southwest Florida early on Monday, Wilma was the eighth hurricane to hit the state in 15 months, an unprecedented assault by nature that left Floridians reeling.

"Really, really tired of this. This is the third time I've been without power (this year), first Katrina, then Rita, now this," said Miamian Joe Fraghatti, 30, who spent an hour yesterday morning in a fruitless search for gasoline. "I'm definitely thinking of moving west."

By 5 AM (0900 GMT) yesterday, Wilma's top winds had fallen to 185 kilometers per hour as the storm sped northeast over the Atlantic at 85 kilometers per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said. It was 500 kilometers east of Cape Hatteras. North Carolina was expected to be off the Canadian Maritimes early today local time, bringing wind and rain to the northeast.

The 2005 hurricane season, fueled by warmer-than-usual sea temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean, has been a record-breaker, with 22 tropical storms or hurricanes, besting the mark of 21 set in 1933.

The roar of chain saws ripped through the streets as Floridians cleaned up, stretching blue tarps over damaged roofs, dicing fallen trees and sweeping debris into piles at roadsides. They were heartened by a cold front that descended overnight, making it easier to cope without air conditioning after a steamy Florida summer. "We're so lucky it's cool," said Fraghatti.

The storm left most of the 5 million people in Florida's most populous region, the metropolitan area of Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, without lights, air conditioning and refrigeration.

Florida Power & Light, the state's major utility, said it had a work force of 5,100 replacing blown-out transformers and restringing miles of power lines brought down by the hurricane, which cut a swath across Florida from Naples on the southwest coast to West Palm Beach on the east.

By early yesterday, power to 251,000 customers had been restored and 2.98 million customers were without electricity, the utility said.

(China Daily October 26, 2005)