Hurricane-scarred Florida cleans up again

MIAMI, Wednesday (Reuters) Chain saw-wielding residents and an army of electrical repair crews attacked the shambles Hurricane Wilma left in Florida, while frustrations grew on Tuesday as thousands waited hours for supplies and gasoline. Wilma killed five people in Florida on Monday and one in the Bahamas after a devastating trek through the Caribbean that killed 17 in Haiti and Mexico.

It left 6 million people in Florida without electricity and risk analysts said it caused up to $10 billion of damage in the state.

A powerful Category 3 storm with 125 mph (200 kph) winds when it struck southwest Florida on Monday, Wilma was the eighth hurricane to hit the state in 15 months, an unprecedented assault by nature that left residents 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 Joe Fraghatti, 30, who spent an hour on a fruitless search for gasoline. "I'm definitely thinking of moving west."

From Miami to Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach, thousands waited in line for free bags of ice and bottles of water while police kept an eye on frustrated car drivers queuing for hours at the handful of open gasoline stations. Wilma's top winds had fallen to 85 mph (140 kph) as it sped northeast over the Atlantic toward Canada's Maritime provinces, bringing wind and rain to the northeast United States.