Hurricane recovery begins in Florida: Hurricane Charley rumbled north on a treacherous path on Saturday, surging past the Carolinas and into Virginia as a weakening tropical storm after punishing Florida with some of the most widespread, wrenching devastation in its history. Emergency officials said the fearsome hurricane left thousands temporarily homeless and at least 13 people dead in Florida, including a man crushed by a banyan tree and an elderly couple found beneath an overturned dump truck. They said the toll was likely to mount as rescue workers pushed through mountains of soaked debris, and ordered dozens of body bags in anticipation. "We have met our Andrew," said Wayne Sallade, the emergency services director in Charlotte County, referring to the mighty 1992 hurricane that inflicted $25 billion of damage on South Florida and killed 26 people. Hurricane Charley — one of the most powerful storms in the nation's history — caused at least $20 billion in damage in Florida alone, according to early estimates, and prompted the largest mobilization by the Federal Emergency Management Agency since the terrorist attacks of 2001. I was lucky to be able - after changing flights three times - to be able to get flight out a day early and to switch it to the last minute when the Tampa Airport closed, get driven by a friend's uncle to Orlando, and fly out of there Friday morning before the county we were living in was evacuated.